HA NOI — Artists from the Cairo Puppet Theatre will perform the Isis and Osiris play through water puppetry, a unique art form of Viet Nam in Ha Noi on March 8 and 9. 

The show will be directed by artist Mai Mohab with assistant director Vietnamese People’s Artist Nguyen Tien Dung from Viet Nam Puppet Theatre and participation of puppeteers from Cairo Puppet Theatre. Isis and Osiris is the first water puppet show to be performed in Egypt marking a milestone for the genre in Egypt in particular and in the Middle East region.

The play is based on a story from Egyptian mythology. The performances will take place at 10am at Thang Long Puppet Theatre, 57B Dinh Tien Hoang Street on March 8 and at 9am at Viet Nam Puppet Theatre, 361 Truong Chinh. A workshop to exchange and share water puppet performance experiences between Vietnamese and Egyptian artists will be held at 3pm on March 7. 

Water puppetry has the potential to develop in Egypt, a country of the Pharaohs with mythological stories and epics related to the Nile River, according to Mohab. As a result, a three-year co-operative project between Egyptian and Vietnamese puppeteers was carried out with a view to help Egyptian artists perform Vietnamese water puppetry. 

Ha Noi’s show is held to celebrate the 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. — VNS