The water-puppet show takes place every night at a theatre near Hanoi's Hoan Kiem Lake. A live band plays traditional vietnamese instruments on a stage next to the waist-deep pool, and puppet operators (right) hidden behind a colorful veil control the puppets with long sticks and wires under the water. The puppets dance, spin, and splash around in time with the music, with a story tying the whole production together as in a Western opera.