Vietnamese water puppetry comes to Egypt

Cairo (VNA) – Egypt will stage its first Vietnamese water puppet show on May 12, heard a press conference in Cairo on May 11.

Held by Egypt’s Ministry of Culture, National Theatre and Cairo Opera House, the conference drew more than 60 correspondents from press agencies in Egypt.

Political counselor at the Vietnamese Embassy in Egypt Nguyen Hong Son attended the event.

Director of the Egypt National Theatre Fatouh Ahmed said the “Isis and Osiris” play will be staged through water puppetry – a unique art form of Vietnam .

It is part of cooperation between Vietnam ’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Egypt ’s Ministry of Culture, he said.

He revealed that the play, performed by artists from the Cairo Opera House, will be staged in the capital on May 12 before going to other Egyptian localities.

Artist May Mohab from the Cairo Opera House brought Vietnamese water puppetry to Egyptian audiences. During the completion of his MA thesis, he and coworkers endeavoured to boost cultural cooperation between Vietnam and Egypt in and between the Cairo Opera House and Thang Long Water Puppetry Theatre.

With the assistance of Vietnamese artists, the bilateral cooperation project has been nearly completed after more than three years of implementation.

May Mohab said that he is very happy his dream has come true, saying water puppetry is a unique art form with a lot of potential to develop in Egypt.

He thanked the Vietnamese Embassy in Egypt , especially former Ambassador Dao Thanh Chung and his successor Do Hoang Long as well as Vietnamese artists and students for supporting him.

The Vietnamese art form is expected to come to people across the Middle East and Northern African region in the near future.-VNA