Watch water puppetry in the delta where rice farmers invented it
Puppeteers waist-deep behind a screen
An hour of short folk episodes performed by lacquered wooden puppets on the surface of a waist-deep pool, driven by unseen puppeteers behind a screen and accompanied by a live orchestra of traditional instruments at the side of the stage.
Why it's unique
Water puppetry began with rice farmers in this river delta around the eleventh century, who worked wooden puppets from waist-deep water in flooded paddies between harvests. The stage is a pool; the puppeteers stand in it behind a bamboo screen and work the figures on long submerged poles.
The art form exists in this delta and essentially nowhere else in the world as a living tradition. Touring versions play abroad, which is precisely the reason to see it here: the repertoire, the live orchestra and the audience are all local rather than adapted.
Before you go
Book ahead; shows sell out and there are only a handful a day. Do not pay up for the very front rows unless you want to be splashed — rows four to eight give you a flatter sightline across the water, which is where the puppets actually perform, and the front row looks up at them.
The orchestra is half the show and most of the audience never looks at it. The singers narrate the episodes in cheo style and the instruments include a one-stringed dan bau, which is worth watching being played. Roughly an hour with no interval.