Tales & Legends of Laos at French Institute

Once upon a time… Tales and Legends are part of every culture. Like you, I heard some from aged people, but it was actually more about ghosts and spirits, not really about the “Country”. Yesterday, I attended one of the two last shows of Tales & Legends of Laos, performed by Les Bêtes sur la Lune, in collaboration with Khao Niew company.

Les Bêtes sur la Lune is a Lao-French theater company, performing between Paris and Vientiane. The first show was held at the French Embassy, two months ago, in the garden. I assume visitors were delighted by the atmosphere there.

At the French Institute, between the set up, the khaen – Lao musical instrument – of Mr. Sinthavong and the voice of Ms Thiane, the story teller, we were transported to the 17th Century.

This evening , Thiane tells us about three stories.

The first one, about Ya Yeu and Pou Yeu, teaches us that Ya Yeu and Phou Yeu – Grandmother and Grandfather – sacrified themselves to save the future generations and Earth, which is why we should take care of It.

The second was a story about Namfon, the girl of the rain, and tells us about love. This tale was the saddest one in my opinion, but it tells us about the coffee we all know well:, the coffee from Bolaven plateau. People in the South says the coffee is strong because it was born from a love that was pure, but bitter because of all the shed tears. If you want to know about the story in between, goooo the the French Institute ! (LAST ONE TODAY !)

Both tales & legends were accompanied by a shadow theatre, mixing Lao and French language. I was impressed by all the shapes, where you could easily recognize identity of this country we love, and the professionalism of the speakers !

The third one was an interpretation of the Pralak Pralam, epic of Lao people, relates a legend of the Kinnari, half-human, half-bird. A touching story between Manola and Sithone. This last story was played by puppets from the Lao company, Khao Niew.