Water puppet show «Múa rối nước Bông Sen» (Lotus Water Puppet)

   A short walk from Hoan Kiem Lake (Hồ Hoàn Kiếm), puppets take to the water every day: mischievous Teu (Tễu) raises festival flags out of the water, dragons dance amid fire and spray, and King Le Loi (Lê Lợi) returns his magic sword, the legend that gave the lake its name.

   The show runs 50 minutes. It opens with northern Vietnamese folk music, followed by the water puppet acts:
— Teu's entrance with festival flags that rise out of the water dry
— a dragon dance with fire and water
— a bát âm octet and «Vinh quy bái tổ», in which a scholar who has passed the exams returns home to honor his ancestors
— «King Le Loi Returns the Sword»
— farm work: a buffalo boy playing the flute, plowing, rice planting, harvest
— a swimming race and the chase of a fox raiding the ducks
— hầu đồng, the spirit-medium ritual of the Mother Goddess religion, which UNESCO recognizes as intangible cultural heritage of humanity
— the dance of the four sacred animals: dragon, unicorn, tortoise and phoenix

   According to the newspaper Báo Văn Hóa, the line-up of acts may change from show to show. The puppeteers are artisans from traditional puppetry villages around the country. The Bông Sen (Lotus) water puppet center has operated since September 2013 in a French-built building more than a century old, with two entrances, on Lê Thái Tổ and Hàng Trống streets, and is part of the Vietnam Contemporary Art Theater (Nhà hát Nghệ thuật Đương đại Việt Nam).

   It makes an easy first water puppet show if you are only in Hanoi for a few days: the performance is short, there are shows every day, and the theater sits right by the lake. The short format also works well for families with children.

   Water puppetry, múa rối nước, was born from the rice-growing civilization of the Red River Delta, which is why so many acts are about village work. The puppeteers work the figures from behind a screen, standing in the water, and only step out to face the audience at the end.

   Shows run every afternoon; times change from week to week, and the theater posts the coming week's schedule on its website, so check it before you go. Bookings are taken on the theater's hotline; there is also a landline, 024 3938 1173, and an email address, [email protected]. The most recent price list the theater has published dates from 1 September 2022, so confirm the price when you book.

   If you have just one evening in Hanoi for traditional arts, start it here, then walk out to the lake where, legend says, a turtle took back the king's sword.