Thang Long Water Puppet Theater

That was interesting, but in the end too long...

The music and puppetry were really good and nice to see traditional art form. We knew we wouldn’t follow the story of the show however it was rather bizarre!

Nice and colorful musical performance. We were comfortably seated and could watch perfectly the show. However, because we don't understand Vietnamese, we were just trying to guess what the story was about. We would have enjoyed it more if we had been able to download a presentation of the story in English.

A bit long - take a translated - great action

Like so many tourists, we wanted to discover Hanoi's famous water puppet theatre. We bought our tickets for the 4th row 2 days before the show (200k VND pp; the higher the seat, the cheaper). Ten minutes before the performance, the doors opened, the room was full and we had a perfect view of the ‘stage’. You could rent an audio guide but we didn't do this so we couldn't always follow the full story. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the show because of the live music (some 8 musicians with some special instruments) and live voices (in Vietnamese), the fun and beautiful puppets, the humor and also the story that clearly told the origin and history of the nearby Hoa Hoan Kiem lake with its beautiful temple. The whole show lasted 50 min and was really worth the experience.

unique performance in good price. it could have been better with english subtitle since it has some story in it.

Beautiful show with ancient Vietnamese art form. This is not one to miss in Hanoi, we loved it. Short and sweet show, amazing value for money at £5 each and we had a great view!

The purchase of the tickets was straightforward through Tripadvisor. However, on arrival, things felt rather chaotic. Organisation appeared to be in short supply and the crowd gathering outside created some concern, particularly for Megan, as there was a real risk of people being crushed in the rush to enter. Thankfully, we made it inside safely in the end. Once seated, we quickly discovered that the theatre makes very efficient use of its available space. The seats are quite cramped, so if you’re particularly tall or broad-shouldered, you may find yourself getting to know your neighbours better than expected. As English visitors, some of the folktales were difficult to follow in detail, and we found the audio guide a little sparse at times. However, this did not detract significantly from the overall experience. The skill and artistry involved in the water puppetry are genuinely impressive, and it is easy to appreciate the tradition even when some of the finer story details are lost in translation. The live music and singing added greatly to the atmosphere and authenticity of the performance. The musicians were excellent, and the cast appeared to be thoroughly enjoying themselves, which helped make the show even more engaging. Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed the performance and would recommend spending an evening experiencing this unique aspect of Vietnamese culture. Audio guides are available in other languages for 50,000 VND per person. Tickets cost us 858,156VND (£24.42), when we collected the tickets from Viator we noticed the price listed was 200,000VND each so for both it was 400,000VND (£11.20) We checked this against the sales desk and can confirm it is cheaper to buy from the theatre than online.

Ima bit of a mix up at first They couldn’t find our booking but all worked out . Puppereers very talented a cultural experience . Worth it if you have enough time or you want to get out of the heat

Great cultural experience in Hanoi. Would recommend getting English audio for those who want a more thorough understanding of the dialogue