(VOVworld)- The puppet play “Dances of the Night Queen” by the Vietnam Puppetry Theatre won the Gold Medal at the 4^th International Puppetry Festival held in Hanoi last week. At the festival, Vietnamese artists also showed off their creativity through a variety of puppet performances which were highly acclaimed by the jury board.

The puppet play 'Vu Dieu Hoa Quynh' performed at the festival

You are listening to a piece of music from the water puppetry play “Rising from water” by Emeritus Artist Chu Luong of the Thang Long Puppetry Theater. On the water puppet stage, in addition to Uncle Teu, a popular character in traditional Vietnamese water puppet plays, audience can also see buffalo fights from Spain and excerpts from the ballet Swan Lake by the Russian composer Tchaikovsky. By re-enacting aspects of world culture on the traditional Vietnamese stage, Vietnamese puppeteers introduced both their own folk culture and world cultures. Artist Sarah Rowland Barker of the UK Puppet Troupe says she was strongly impressed with Vietnamese puppetry, its music and content.

Vietnamese performances at the festival were highly applauded by the jury board for their creativity, high quality and for combining different genres on the stage. In the play “Da Trach love story”, the artists combined traditional water puppetry with paper cutting arts while in the play “Dancing of the Night Queen” they brought to the stage cute bamboo puppets. The plays are romantic, poetic and embrace Vietnamese cultural identities. In the puppet play “Dancing of the Night Queen”, puppeteers show off their skills in handling string puppets.

At the festival, Vietnamese artists introduced a number of major plays which involved experienced artists and reflected a harmonious combination between the actors and puppets. Artist Nguyen Tien Dung says:“In my play, I want to promote the charm and uniqueness of Vietnam’s water puppetry. It’s easy for actors to use their facial expression and voices to but the puppets cannot do this. So the artists have to make the puppets come alive through their voices and movements”.

In the context of international integration, Vietnamese puppetry has maintained its prestige and position in the hearts of Vietnamese and foreign audiences.