Water puppet play «Hoa Đất Việt» (Flowers of the Vietnamese Land)

   The lights dim, the still water ripples, and painted wooden figures come to life on its surface.

   This is one of the long-running water puppet programmes at the Southern Dragon Water Puppet theatre: puppeteers stand waist-deep in the pool behind a bamboo screen, guiding the puppets with hidden rods and strings under the water, to the sound of traditional music, in scenes drawn from rural life, work and festivals across Vietnam.

   The programme is staged by the Southern Dragon Troupe (Đoàn Rồng Phương Nam), the water puppetry company of the Ho Chi Minh City Arts Centre, and performed by the company's full ensemble. The theatre describes it as a set of traditional, light-hearted water puppet turns, put together from colourful puppetry, choreography and live music.

   Water puppetry — múa rối nước — grew out of flooded rice paddies in the Red River Delta and is close to a thousand years old: a stele raised at Đọi Sơn pagoda in 1121 already describes a water puppet performance given for King Lý Nhân Tông.

   The show runs about 45 minutes and suits audiences of any age, including families with children.

   The performance is in Vietnamese, but this is a form built on action rather than dialogue: every scene reads from what the puppets do, so it works without the language.

   The stage stands inside the grounds of the History Museum of Ho Chi Minh City, next to the gate of the Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens — the eastern edge of District 1, roughly two kilometres from Ben Thanh Market. You enter through the museum gate, there is car parking on site, and doors open an hour before the show. Seats are chosen from the hall plan when booking; zones A and B cost the same.

   Hotline: 0931 477 699, 0924 368 999.

   Curious how a puppet can tell a story with only wood, water and light? Come see it for yourself at Southern Dragon Water Puppet.