The following is the story from which we created Dragon-Fish. You will see from the synopsis of our play that we have made a number of important changes.

The Little Talking Animal and The Shining Blue Fish

In the Vietnamese fairy tale, 'The Little Talking Animal and the Shining Blue Fish', a dragon king appears.

The basics of the start of the story are that a kind man named Slowcoach befriends a little animal, called Cibet.

Later, Slowcoach's nasty brother killed Cibet. The tree above Cibet's grave rained silver on Slowcoach whenever he went to pray there. When the brother tried, he was covered in mud. In anger, the brother cut down the tree.

Slowcoach made a pig's trough from the tree, which was also destroyed by his brother, and then finally a fish hook. When he touched the hook to the water, the lake flooded and almost killed him. His rod and hook disappeared. Then a beautiful maiden appeared. She was the daughter of the dragon king. The king had the hook caught in his mouth, and wanted it removed. When Slowcoach agreed to help, the maiden turned him into a bubble and carried him to her father. Slowcoach removed the hook, and was given a jug containing a blue fish.

In the time after receiving the jug, he noticed that whenever he left his cottage, it was cleaned. One day he only pretended to leave, and saw the little blue fish turn into the dragon king's daughter. He came in and smashed the jug so that she would have to stay, but first she told him that he had to make her some bones, which he did. The dragon king's daughter then became his wife.

The nasty brother also wanted a wife, so dived into the lake, and the dragon king turned him into a fish.