Went to Hanoi's famous Water Puppet Theatre (whaddya mean, you've never heard of it?). Based on an ancient art form that began over 1000 years ago on the Red River flood plain, it's listed as a 'must see' in our guide book.
Well, the Smiths had a split decision tonight on whether or not the book was right. Wend thought it charming and mesmerising, while I found it interesting yet strangely disturbing.
From Scene One there was something mildly disconcerting about the show, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what it was. The production was certainly very clever, with each puppeteer operating unseen from a darkened tank the size of a small swimming pool. But there was a certain element that just didn't seem right, and the longer I watched, the more uneasy I became.
Afterwards we had the chance to view replicas of the puppets in the Theatre foyer, and this is when I finally realised what had been bugging me.
The principal puppet looked exactly like one of my mates.
I'd just spent an hour and a half watching Juzz fishing for frogs, Juzz slaying Dragons and - most unlikely of all - Juzz wooing a pretty peasant girl with a dainty little dance.
Wrong, wrong and wrong again.
I'll be writing to the production company asking them to stop using the Juzz puppet immediately, or at least come up with some material better suited to his character.
A cider drinking scene would be good, or better still, a 20 minute monologue where he
moans to the audience about how crap the beer in Hanoi is.
2 comments:
Hi Dave and Wend - just seen the puppet reference - did you get any pics?
Whilst you're swanning around the South Pacific tomorrow/today to you, we're off to see the lads in another depressing Sunday fixture at Charlton having gone out of Europe on Thursday....and it's forecast to snow on Monday -great...take care. Love Juzz and the girls
Aaaaah! wooing peasant girls with dainty dancing is shiiiitttttt!
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