Leaders of the Vietnam Puppetry Theater reported in a Jan 6 press meeting that their performing tour in France, which staged Andersen’s loved tales in Vietnam’s traditional form of water puppetry, was a resounding success.

The 60-minute play, “Andersen’s old tales”, put on by Vietnam Puppetry Theater and promoted in France by the France Interarts Riviera SA, featured three popular fairy tales by the revered Danish author, namely “Den lille Havfrue” (The little mermaid), “Den grimme Ælling” (The Ugly Duckling), and “Den standhaftige Tinsoldat” (The Steadfast Tin Soldier).

The five-day tour, from Dec 26 to 30, 2013, drew some 4,000 audiences. The Dec 27 show was broadcast live on the website Andersen au VietNam - Arte Live Web.

“The shows were always packed. The French audiences gave standing ovations and said ‘thank you’ all the time when the shows ended,” said veteran artist Thuy Trang, one of the nine artists taking part in the tour.

“During the ten shows at Claude Lévi-Strauss Theater, part of the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, the native kids burst into tears at the scene of the duckling driven away by the whole swarm of ducks from the play “Den grimme Ælling” (The Ugly Duckling),” recalled artist Nguyen Tien Dung, vice head of the Vietnam Water Puppetry Theater.

The play, which is part of the 2014 Vietnam Year in France, fuses Hans Christian Andersen’s most beloved fairy tales with Vietnam’s famous water puppetry.

Some 100 puppets were restored to be suitable for the performance in a 0.5m-deep lake, shallow compared to the usual 1m of water. With its slow movements and melodic music arranged by French composer Henry Torgue, the play was indeed an idyllic and intriguing art feast.

With the success, the Interarts Riviera SA now plans to feature the play in more tours to France and some other European countries in 2014 and 2015.

Eight years ago, a similar water puppetry performance featuring four of Andersen’s fairy tales was also staged. The unique blend earned the play a Gold Medal at the International Puppetry Festival in 2010, hosted by Vietnam.