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A print of a water puppet standing in dark indigo water: a pale face with red lips under a gold lotus headdress, a red tunic and an ochre sash.A photograph of a water puppet standing in dark indigo water: a pale face with red lips under a gold lotus headdress, a red tunic and an ochre sash.

Múa rối nước

A water puppetOchre, Sappan red, Indigo, key blockA water puppet theatre, Hà NộiLine drawn by FLUX.2 [klein] 4B, an image model, after a photograph by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, Photograph by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, CC BY 2.0. Cropped for this site.

In the city

Puppets on the water

A water puppet performance, after a talk on how the puppeteers work from behind the screen.

Length
2 hours
Starts
17:00
Group
Up to 8
From
USD 30 a guest
Book: Puppets on the water

From, per guestUSD 30

1. Day
2. People
2 guests

Up to 8 in a group.

TotalUSD 60

We hold your places for 10 minutes while you add your details and pay. The price is final and charged in USD; other currencies are approximate. Sample company: nothing here is a real booking.

What happens

A water puppet performance, after a talk on how the puppeteers work from behind the screen. The art took shape in the villages of the Red River delta, in ponds and flooded fields, probably around the eleventh century. Sources differ on the date.

  1. 17:00

    We meet outside the theatre.

  2. 17:10

    A talk before the lights go down: how the puppets are carved and lacquered, and how the puppeteers stand in the water behind a screen to work them.

  3. 17:40

    The performance: short scenes with live music, about fifty minutes.

  4. 18:35

    A glass of tea, and your questions.

  5. 19:00

    We finish.

Included: A seat at the performance; A glass of tea afterwards.

What you will see

1 of 3

Three water puppets with pale faces, tall gold hats and red robes, standing in dark water.

Water puppets. Photograph by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, CC BY 2.0. Graded for this site.

Photographs, graded to look like one shoot. Select one to see it larger, with its credit.

Good to know

What to wear

Anything. The theatre is cooler than the street.

Walking

Under 1 km.

Children

From 4. The scenes are short and the music is loud. Seats near the water can be splashed.

Access

The theatre has a few steps, and the seating is fixed. Tell us when you book.

The weather, by season

  • Xuân February to April: lows 16 to 22°C, about 53 mm of rain a month.
  • Hạ May to August: lows 25 to 27°C, about 239 mm of rain a month.
  • Thu September to November: lows 20 to 25°C, about 148 mm of rain a month.
  • Đông December and January: lows 14 to 14°C, about 20 mm of rain a month.

Láng station normals, 1991 to 2020. The four seasons

Where we meet

Outside the water puppet theatre on Đinh Tiên Hoàng Street, a few minutes' walk from the east bank of the lake.

We send the exact door with your booking email.

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Đinh Tiên Hoàng Street. We link to maps; we do not embed one.

Cancelling

Cancel up to 48 hours before the start for a full refund. Between 48 and 24 hours, half is refunded. Within 24 hours, nothing is, unless we cancel: then you are refunded in full, or moved to another day.

Sample terms. The cancellation policy

Questions

Do I need to understand Vietnamese?

No. The scenes are short, and your guide tells you each story before it starts.

Is it for children?

Partly. The puppets and the splashes are for children, and the music and the work behind the screen are for everyone else.

Can I meet the puppeteers?

Sometimes they come to the front at the end of the show. We cannot promise it.

More questions

What guests say

Reserved for a guest

Reviews appear here only once real guests have written them. We do not publish sample reviews.

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Starts
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Group
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From
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Starts
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Group
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From
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