Recently, the experiential stage program ‘Huyen thoai tuoi thanh xuan’ (Legend of Youth) directed by Le Quy Duong at the Vietnamese Women's Museum has attracted the attention of large audiences.

Huyen thoai tuoi thanh xuan retraces Dong Loc Junction area in Ha Tinh in 1968. On the arterial road No 15A, 10 female soldiers of Squad 4-C552 lived, fought with fortitude and died. They were assigned the task of ensuring continuous traffic for convoys carrying weapons and food from the North to the Southern battlefield. The 10 young female volunteers sacrificed their lives heroically on the Dong Loc Junction battlefield at the age of 18 and 20. Though their lives were short, they created their own immortal legend.

According to the representative of the Vietnam Women’s Museum, in addition to Vietnamese audiences, the play attracts many expats, partially thanks to subtitles in English.

Duong has proposed to Trinh Thuy Mui, People’s Artist, Chair of the Vietnam Theatre Artists Association, that it would be better to have English subtitles for plays performed at tourism sites and large cities.

In the document to the association, Duong stressed that the plays registered to compete in the 2025 Hanoi International Experimental Stage Festival should have English subtitles. This should be seen as a privilege for consideration and assessment.

Explaining this proposal, Duong said many international travelers and expats in Hanoi, HCM City and large cities have demand to watch Vietnam’s contemporary plays.

Theater is a lively, direct and pioneering art form, which authentically reflects human life, society and culture in each country. It won’t be too costly to set up subtitles, while the subtitles can help disseminate the Vietnamese theatre language to international tourists. The plays participating in international theater festivals both at home and abroad need this even more.

Duong called on theatres, both state- and private-owned, to consider making investment to set up English subtitles for each artistic piece, so as to make Vietnamese art to reach out to international viewers in Vietnam, before the art pieces enter international markets.

Mui also affirmed that a bilingual system for plays would not cost much money or be an obstacle for theatres.

She said the association will send a document to large cities and cities receiving high numbers of travelers, requesting to create subtitles in foreign languages suited to the foreign travelers in the localities.

Tinh Le