LookAtVietnam Bridge – The Central Vietnam Puppetry Theatre will take 16 traditional water puppetry items to Finland for the first time this autumn. At the same time, 11 Vietnamese puppeteers will be trained in modern puppetry at Finland's Hevosenkeke Theatre. Kirsi Aropaltio, Art Director of Hevosenkeke Theatre, talks about the event.
How did you feel when you watched traditional water puppetry items performed by Vietnamese artists? What will you say to Finnish audiences about Vietnamese water puppetry?
I don’t know much about water puppetry, but after watching several shows by the Central Vietnam Puppetry Theatre and talking with my Vietnamese colleagues, I partly understand characteristics of this art. The good of this art is the continuous transition among small items. Each item is a message from the wet rice civilisation of Vietnam. The humour in the dialogue of puppets and the way puppets perform themselves in the water environment draws audiences from the beginning to the end.
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From August 29 to September 2, 15 young Vietnamese water puppet artists will perform at Espoo Culture Centre, Tapiola and Hevosenkenka Theatre at the invitation of the Finnish Ambassador to Vietnam, Mr Pekka Hyvonen.
Hevosenkenka Theatre is famous around the world for “human puppets” – puppets as big as humans.
The Vietnamese delegation will present to international friends their best performances like Uncle Teu, dragon dance, fishing, fighting foxes and catching ducks.
From August 25 to October 10, another 10 Vietnamese puppet artists will fly to Finland to attend a training course and share experience with Finnish colleagues.
As scheduled, in November 2009, a Finnish puppet delegation will also have an exchange course in Vietnam to explore the unique features of puppets in general and water puppets in particular. The visits are a good preparation for the second international puppet festival to be held in Vietnam in 2010. |
What is the goal of your theatre in hosting Vietnamese puppeteers?
This is the first step in long-term cooperation between the two theatres and the two countries in this special art field: water puppetry. Our main target is to help Finnish children understand about the life and culture and people of Vietnam. We will organise three shows a day. The morning show will be for children and students. The afternoon show (2pm) will be for audiences of any age and the evening show will be for the young.
Dry puppetry develops strongly in Finland while it is still new in Vietnam. What is your advice for Vietnam to further develop this art?
I think each cultural exchange is an opportunity for learning from each other. Perhaps after this trip our artists and Vietnamese puppeteers will discover new things to enrich their puppetry items. Next year we will send a water troupe to Vietnam to introduce our unique puppetry.
What could help an audience to differentiate between Finnish and Vietnamese dry puppetry?
Finnish dry puppetry is mainly based on stories by famous Finnish writers. If Vietnamese puppetry needs many puppeteers in an item, we need only one artist and each puppetry item includes several scenes. Each scene is very short and there is no interval between two scenes so puppeteers must concentrate heavily on their work.
So your puppeteers must be trained systematically?
That's right. Our puppeteers are trained methodically. They study puppetry at university and they are further trained at our theatre. Each puppeteer is not only a professional artist but also creates puppets to deliver educational messages to viewers.
Water puppetry is a strange art to Finnish audiences. Does the Hevosenkeka Theatre plan to develop this kind of art?
It is possible because we still have space for new projects. There is also a chance that the 200,000 lakes in Finland can be used usefully in the summer. However, we need enthusiastic cooperation from Vietnamese colleagues. I hope this will be a first step in a breakthrough in the puppetry of both nations.
(Source: TQ) | 
