5th December 2016 ~ I was excited to find out I could watch a traditional dance performance during my stay in Luang Prabang while buying the tickets to the museum. The Royal Theatre Building is in the same compound with the National Museum and the Royal Temple. The cheapest ticket costs you 100 000 Kip and you could pay more to get better seats.
If you have watched dance performances in other countries like Thailand or Indonesia, the plot to the dance theatre is basically the same. The show is called Phralak Phralam - the national epic of Lao people. This is because the story is based on the old book of Ramayana. So there would be the same characters acting on stage especially the White Monkey. We even have the local version of Ramayana called "Hikayat Sri Rama" from which many traditional shows like "Mak Yong" and "Wayang Kulit" (shadow puppets) are based on.
The dance steps and the music beat were actually quite slow and repetitive, I had a feeling I could easily dance like those people. At times, thing might get a bit monotonous and they seemed to be dancing in repeated loops. However, I really enjoyed the live traditional dance and live singing. The singers had very good vocals.
And here is the front facade of the Royal Theatre Building.
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| the exhibits at the lobby |
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when your travel companions decided to visit the night market,
instead of watching a dance performance,
then selfie it was. |
(When I was there) There were three performances staged on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. The door was opened at 7:00 p.m. and the whole thing took about 1 ½ hours. If you are a culture vulture, then this should be something that you should not miss.
I will post videos uploaded on Youtube of the sections recorded during the dance theatre later. Or you can search for my channel on Youtube using the same name: Cikgu Zainal.
