The owner of the house and puppet shows is puppeteer Phan Thanh Liem, who has contributed to preserving and promoting the value of traditional puppetry, particularly Thuy Dinh water puppetry.
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Artist Phan Thanh Liem and international friends |
Visiting the mini water puppet stage of artist Phan Thanh Liem, a British couple expressed their excitement at the puppets and props. Placed on the stairs to the second floor are puppets made by the forefathers of Phan family (originally from Nam Truc district, Nam Dinh province, with seven generations working in water puppetry) and artist Phan Thanh Liem.
At this miniature art museum, tourists can sip a cup of green tea with peanut candies while listening to artisans talking about traditional art of water puppetry. The 4th floor of the house is a mini water puppetry stage. The space is just enough for only artist Phan Thanh Liem and his puppets.
The mini water puppetry stage was designed by artist Phan Thanh Liem in the 1990s.
In 2000, the mini stage "made by Phan Thanh Liem" was formed and was first introduced to the audience in 2001.
The stage is small but more mobile. It still retains the basic elements of the traditional water puppetry stage. All stages and props can be easily set up in a short time and can be placed in a small box. With the mini stage, artist Phan Thanh Liem not only comes to remote and isolated areas to give water puppetry performances to children but also goes aboard (such as Canada, the U.K., France, the U.S., Japan, the Republic of Korea, etc.) to popularize unique features of the Vietnamese culture to international friends.
From a mini stage in Kham Thien street, artist Phan Thanh Liem expanded another mini stage at his private house in Thach Ban ward (Long Bien district). He shared that after the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign tourists returned to Vietnam and they came to his stage. The stage in Kham Thien street has a capacity of 14-16 seats while in Thach Ban, the stage can hold 40 audiences.
In order to spread the art of water puppetry and look for the heirs, artist Phan Thanh Liem and a group of students from the FPT Polytechnic College kicked off a project called “Teu a Teu oi” (Stories of Uncle Teu). The project consists of online exhibition featuring water puppetry and water puppetry performances made by artist Phan Thanh Liem.
Translated by Quynh Oanh