This theater houses a number of folk and cultural performances. We went for a typical show that is shown to foreigners at 5pm. The name belies the actuality: although royal, the theater infrastructure is pretty basic, with many rows of chairs on the same level, with a slightly raised stage. Despite seats being on same level, price of the seats increased by $1 every row closer to the stage.

The show started off with the "baci" ceremony. This seems to be the equivalent of the Indian invocation ceremony, involving continuous chanting by a number of senior citizens. The ceremony finally culminated in the tying of the white thread for all the guests, which is supposed to be to invite our various restless spirits to come home and rest. The thread is supposed to be worn for 3 nights and then kept in a safe place for eternal well being of the wearer. After this ceremony, the audience was also given refreshments in the form of a soft drink, a banana and pressed rice papad.

After this, it was time for the youngsters to take the stage, with various ballets depicting scenes from Ramayana. This was most interesting to us Indians, in comparing the Laotian interpretation to our version. For instance, Rama is called Prahlam, Laxman: Prahlak, Ravana:Raphphanasuan and Sita: Sida. The ballet was reminiscent of the South Indian art form of yakshagana, in that participants wore masks and displayed an exaggerated dance routine accompanied by music.

After about 1.5 hours of performance, we had a short break, after which we were made to shift down into the open under the building awning, watching the minorities' dance performance on the lawns. There were two performances, one of which involved musicians playing upon their bamboo bagpipe instrument while performing a number of acrobatic steps. The second involved performers lifting jars full of water with their mouths while also managing to dance along the way. Overall, nothing overwhelmingly brilliant, but an interesting glimpse into the Laotian art form.

June 22, 2004