Folk water puppetry: Innovation to keep pace with contemporary cultural life

VOV.VN - Although water puppetry is an attractive cultural and tourist product, and Thang Long Water Puppetry Theatre is "the only theatre in the world that is open 365 days a year", traditional water puppet troupes in localities are still facing the risk of dissolution or struggling to maintain operations.

Weak water puppetry in traditional space

In 2023, in the difficult conditions of the early post-Covid-19 period, Thang Long Water Puppetry Theatre still performed more than 1,600 shows, serving hundreds of thousands of audiences, earning a revenue of more than 70 billion VND. On average, there are 6-8 shows per day, with more than a thousand audiences, most of whom are international tourists.

These figures show that water puppetry can absolutely survive and develop strongly if invested in the right direction, connecting art with social needs, creativity and cultural tourism .

Traditional water puppetry audiences today are mostly international tourists.

Although water puppetry attracts international audiences and tourists, traditional water puppet troupes in local traditional performance spaces still struggle to maintain operations and preserve the quintessence of water puppetry.

Artisan Nguyen Vien of Chang Son water puppetry troupe ( Hanoi ) shared: “The difference of Chang Son water puppetry troupe is that the artists use strings to control the puppets instead of using poles like in other localities. Designing a water stage controlled by strings requires a lot of time, the performance stage is fixed so it is not possible to flexibly move the stage out of the locality. Therefore, if there are no regular performances in the locality, the artists cannot bring the stage to perform elsewhere, the artists will not have a place to perform.”

Art spaces and water puppetry stages in traditional spaces are not yet professional and still have many limitations.

Artisan Nguyen The Nghi of Dao Thuc puppetry troupe shares the same opinion: “The difficulty of folk puppet troupes in the community is the performance space. Thang Long Puppetry Theatre has a professional performance space and an effective communication and connection system. Meanwhile, in folk puppet troupes performing in traditional spaces, there are many limitations. Artisans often have to do many different jobs because there are no regular performances, and when there are performances, it is difficult to gather together.”

“The most important thing is to improve the professionalism in the activities of puppetry troupes and groups: from organization, staging, artist training to promotion strategies, cooperation with tourism and education . When art units have a clear, autonomous and creative method of operation, puppetry will have the opportunity to truly make a strong comeback in community life,” said Ms. Le Thi Anh Mai, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports.

Preserving and promoting the value of puppetry art is not only about preserving ancient performances in theaters, but also about preserving traditional puppet performance spaces in rural villages.

Creativity and connection are the keys to conservation and development.

Preserving and promoting the value of puppetry art is not only to preserve the ancient performances in theaters, but also to preserve the puppet performance space in the countryside. The plays in the "Traditional Water Puppetry" program of Thang Long Puppetry Theater all originate from the daily life and spiritual culture of farmers in the Northern Delta. There are currently 17 plays: "Flag Raising", "Teu Giao Tro", "Dragon Dance", "The Buffalo Boy Playing the Flute", "Plowing", "Frog Fishing", "Fox Catching and Duck Catching", "Fishing", "Returning Home in Glory", "Lion Contest", "Phoenix Dance", "Le Loi Returns the Sword", "Children Playing in the Water", "Boat Racing", "Lion Dance", "Fairy Dance", "Four Spirits". Tourists from many different countries around the world are interested, curious, and want to learn about the identity and people of Vietnam. And when coming to Thang Long Puppetry, they are satisfied when witnessing historical stories and traditional culture wrapped up in the images of puppets.

Meanwhile, water puppetry in the cultural life of the villages, the original cultural space of water puppetry, which carries the purity and innocence of the Northern Delta rice civilization with hundreds of plays, is at risk of being lost in its traditional space.

Water puppetry still lacks creativity and contemporary cultural breath.

Many artists share the same opinion that the current audience of water puppetry is mostly international tourists because water puppetry is a re-enactment of the quintessence of the culture of rice civilization, which is unfamiliar to tourists. For domestic audiences, water puppetry lacks new creations, the plays are hundreds of years old, even thousands of years old, so they do not attract the attention of audiences, especially young audiences. This is also the reason why water puppetry lacks the next generation of artists, making it very difficult to maintain.

"It is true that we need to innovate. If we want to develop, we need to innovate. That means we have to renew and create new performances and plays to keep up with contemporary cultural life. We cannot just keep performing the same thousand-year-old performances over and over again," emphasized artist Nguyen The Nghi.

To preserve and promote the heritage value of water puppetry in the traditional space, water puppetry needs to maintain its audience so that the art of puppetry can truly live in life. Specifically, we must have performance contracts and regular performances so that the artisans can have income, so that the artisans can stick with the profession and proactively create new plays.

“We need a synchronous and sustainable strategy that both preserves traditional values, encourages creativity, and at the same time enhances promotion and connects with tourism businesses to create a regular audience. This is the method that Dao Thuc puppet troupe has been implementing quite effectively to preserve and promote the value of water puppetry in recent years,” said artisan Nguyen The Nghi.

Source: https://vov.vn/van-hoa/di-san/nghe-thuat-roi-nuoc-dan-gian-doi-moi-de-bat-nhip-doi-song-van-hoa-duong-dai-post1245644.vov