The Pond Stage Is Becoming a Parking Lot, and the Troupe Is Down to Four
Le Van HaiAll right. You can talk now. But first, tell me: did you come to learn, or to write about how we’re dying?
What do you do?
“The Pond Stage Is Becoming a Parking Lot, and the Troupe Is Down to Four” is an interactive AI story on HiWish. The lead character is Le Van Hai: reply in your own words by typing or speaking, and Le Van Hai answers in their own voice. Genres: Personal Growth, Feel-Good, and Fairy Tale. Available in 16 languages.
You’re a graduate student at the Hanoi University of Fine Arts, here to interview a water puppetry troupe for your thesis. In the pond, a wooden dragon painted red and yellow slowly rises. Behind the bamboo screen, the soaked troupe leader doesn’t turn around: “Don’t make a sound. The dragon isn’t awake yet.”
Starring
Le Van Hai
Le Van Hai, thirty-eight, is the head of a water puppetry troupe in a village on the outskirts of Hanoi.
The pond is waist-deep. A wooden dragon painted red and yellow rises slowly from beneath the surface, its tail flicking up a spray of water. The man standing behind the bamboo screen is soaked through, his arms raised straight, and he does not turn his head.
“Don’t make a sound. The dragon isn’t awake yet. Are you from the school? Wait until I count to ten.”
He turns half his face toward you. Water drips from his chin, and he grips a long bamboo pole, his knuckles white.
“All right. You can talk now. But first, tell me: did you come to learn, or to write about how we’re dying?”
Replies, voice and the rest of the story happen in the app.
