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

Meeting Liêm is proving to be a popular event with a number of separate requests to visit him during the summer holidays. As always FVH tries to accommodate and arrange where we can to meet the requests.

Following the successful weekday morning event in July, we have a request to repeat it on Friday 7 August.  This is a particularly fun event for families as well as 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.   They turned the top floor of their house into a theatre complete with mini stage, artificial banyan trees, bamboo trees and a pond. It seats an audience of 15-20 pax. Liêm stages a charming show featuring lion dances, buffalo fighting, rice farming and boat racing – it comes with splashes of water, lighting and sound effects.  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, and find out how he makes the puppets.

Agenda.
This is a morning event.  It starts with a 1 hour water puppet show, followed by an hour chat 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. 10am-11am – water puppet show
Part 2.  11am-12pm – 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 (we currently have a family group and there is space for more people)

Price: please pay in cash on arrival. Final total per person depends on final sign up to ensure we cover Liêm’s set fee. If a larger group it could be from VND 250,000 per person or a small group 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 = bamboolife2@gmail.com
Stella = stella@fvheritage.org
Please include your mobile number and how many people you are signing up for (if you are bringing children please also let us know their ages)

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

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