These show are often used to depict events in the country's history. Important national happenings like the Trung Sisters' Uprising Movement against the Han invaders and the Battle over the Bach Dang River led by famed hero Tran Hung Dao are typical examples of historical scenes one might see portrayed in a water puppet show.

Scenes such as farmers both meticulously caring for their ricefields and enjoying what free time they can muster as they relax between harvests are also common themes.

But whether waxing historical or showing a bit of good old farmer fun, the outfits worn by the puppets in these shows are always representative of the periods in which the tale is set.

"How Do Those Wooden Guys Move?"

To perform the show, the puppeteers themselves hide behind a long screen. From behind the screen they manipulate the wooden puppets with bamboo rods while standing chest-deep in water to enact dramatic scenes using the water's surface as a stage floor. The surface area is usually about four to five metres long and three to four metres deep.

The amazing thing is that despite all this water the puppets never actually get wet, unless of course the scene calls for them to go diving underwater and popping back up again.

A traditional Vietnamese band sits to the side of the stage and accompanies the show, while those people singing and doing the puppets' voices sit next to the puppeteers.

Traditionally such puppets could be up to one metre tall. They were made from the wood of a jackfruit tree and painted with a special substance extracted from what was known as a "tree of paint" (cay son), with a few other ingredients added in.

The common backdrop for the stage is the image of a communal house, or dinh, with its curved red roof. The stage structure is designed to look like a real dinh and is made of either bamboo or brick. Mobile theatres use only bamboo for easy transportation.

The virtual emcee of a water puppet show is the Chu Teu (Little Teu), a tiny and comical wooden figure of a four year-old. His belly is usually exposed and he wears either an unbuttoned red vest or just a loincloth.

Teu is the first puppet to take the stage from behind the screen. The smiling Teu announces the show with some merry bits of song and then vanishes again.

The band starts playing the first scene then begins as the characters take their places "onstage."

During the show the drum is the lead instrument, changing tempo throughout to create different feelings to match each particular scene. This drum is accompanied by a range of other instruments such as cymbals, two sided drums known as "trong com, " flutes, gongs, one-stringed monochords, ancient-style guitars and other traditional instruments typical of northern Vietnamese Opera, or "Cheo."

Hanoi's main centre for water puppetry is the famed Mua Roi Nuoc theatre at the northeast corner of Hoan Kiem Lake. In Ho Chi Minh City water puppet performances can be found at the Museum of History or the War Remnants Museum.