At home with the water puppets (a.m). Water puppet theatre of Phan Thanh Liêm

Following the great success of our event in May with Liêm, there has been a lot of interest in doing more events with him. Given we are heading into the summer holidays, we have arranged another visit to his house on Tuesday morning 7 July. This could be a particularly fun event for families and is a lovely colourful activity for anyone interested in Vietnam’s unique water puppet heritage.

Liêm and his wife are instrumental in keeping the art of water puppetry alive through their unique home theatre.   The top floor has been converted into a mini stage decorated with artificial banyan trees, bamboo trees and a pond. It can seat an audience of 15-20 pax. Liêm stages a show featuring lion dances, buffalo fighting, rice farming and boat racing.  We have a chance to hold the puppets and see how they work, chat to one of the modern-day masters of the water puppet art, learn how his family has kept the art alive throughout the generations, plus he explains how he makes all his puppets.

Agenda.
This is a morning event for a few hours.  It starts with a 1 hour water puppet show, followed by an hour talk with Liêm exploring his home full of water puppets, he will explain about his family tradition of water puppetry (originating from Nam Dinh), how the puppets are made,  the development of the craft over the centuries, and the original reason water puppetry was invented.
Part 1. 10.30am-11.30am – water puppet show
Part 2.  11.30am-12.30pm – talk with Liêm
(Its fine if some people need to leave after part 1)

Numbers: ideally minimum 10 people (so we can cover Liêm’s set price which cannot be negotiated)** ….. the more people the lower the per person cost. Max 15 people

Price: please pay in cash on arrival,  if we have a big group it could be from VND 250,000 or for less people could be VND 350,000 pp** This is a guideline. We will know final pp cost once RSVPs have been received. The price is the same for part 1 only (if you need to leave early) and the full 2 hours .

Venue: address and how to get here will be in the welcome email sent to those confirmed. It is in Thạch Bàn, past Aeon Mall, in Long Bien, off Cổ Linh, about 8km from the centre of Hanoi (very easy to get to by bus, as well as taxis etc.)

RSVP to Ngoc and/or Lau who are looking after this event and liaising with Liêm.
Ngoc = bamboolife2@gmail.com
Lau = laurence_romanowski@yahoo.fr 
Please include your mobile number and how many people you are signing up for.

Vietnamese with FVH committee interpretation as Liêm doesn’t speak ENG.

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