VietNamNet Bridge – A drama project featuring cải lương (reformed opera), the traditional music genre of the south, will be completed this year following 15 years of writing and recording by a veteran HCM City artist and his young staff.

Silky smile: Actress Que Tran, one of the city’s young cai luong talents, has used her skill and creativity to revive the genre.

The project, 100 Nam San Khau Cai Luong (A Hundred Years of Cai Luong Theatre), includes a series of shows featuring the history of the traditional music, songs and plays performed by veteran artists.

It has received support from the HCM City Television and HCM City Theatre Association, as well as many young and veteran performers of the city and southern provinces.        

The project’s first show features five pioneers, Ut Tra On, Minh Canh, Diep Lang, Ba Van and Truong Xuan, all of whom were awarded the titles of People’s Artists and Meritorious Artist by the Government.

The show will include famous extracts from historical plays performed by these artists in the 1950s and 70s. Young performers will sing the original traditional tunes for theatre lovers.

“Our project preserves cai luong by recording and writing the events, the plays and artists of cai luong since the art began in My Tho in Tien Giang Provinc,” said Meritorious Artist Thanh Dien of HCM City, the project’s founder. “We have travelled and talked with many cultural researchers and historians to optimise our project.”      

“Our project also aims to restage famous plays that have been performed by different generations. We hope to encourage young people to learn more about traditional theatre,” he said.

Dien said that his project’s shows would offer tickets at affordable prices to serve students and labourers.

100 Nam San Khau Cai Luong is the 72-year-old Dien’s biggest-ever drama project.  

"I’m working to publish a book featuring all information and images I took while making the project,” said Dien, who believes cải lương is still loved by Vietnamese fans.

The first show of 100 Nam San Khau Cai Luong is expected to be staged late this month at Tran Huu Trang Theatre at 515-517 Tran Hung Dao Street in District 1.

Born to a traditional family in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, Dien began his career at an early age.

During his stage debut for the Truong Xuan Troupe in Long Xuyen in 1959, he bowled over the audience with his voice, looks and performance.  

He later performed for the Huong Mua Thu Troupe and Kim Chung Theatre, one of the region’s leading cai luong troupes, becoming one of its brightest stars.

In 1974, he established his own troupe, Xuan Lien Hoa, which attracted young talents, including Thanh Kim Hue, who later became his wife.

His strong and melodic voice and stage presence helped Dien leave an indelible mark on the art, enabling him to use his popularity to promote the art form.

In 1980, Dien and his wife moved to HCM City to work for the Sai Gon Cai Luong Theatre.

Dien won his first gold prize for his role in Dem Trang (Sleepless Night), a play featuring the late President Ho Chi Minh, at the National Professional Theatre Festival in 1990 in Ha Noi.

Throwback theatre: A series of cai lương plays featuring Vietnamese women will be re-staged in the original style under the project called 100 Nam San Khau Cai Luong (A Hundred Years of Cai Luong Theatre), launched by veteran artist Thanh Dien and his staff. – Photos: VNS

Dien has won several top prizes at theatre festivals and contests, including the Golden Prize for best theatre director at the 2003 National Television Festival in HCM City.   

He has performed in more than 120 plays and dozens of videos and movies.

He now works as a lecturer at the Tran Huu Trang Theatre and HCM City University of Theatre and Cinematography.  

Plays about women

In his project, Dien will restage famous plays written by Tran Huu Trang, who was the first to feature women as leading characters in cai luong.

Trang’s plays staged in the 1940s and 1950s, written in praise of Vietnamese women, are recognised as canonical cai luong and have been staged many times by different generations.

“I want to feature Trang and his role in the theatre’s developments,” said Dien, adding that though Trang has passed away, his art remains meaningful and fresh to audiences, particularly southerners.

Born in 1906 to a farmer family in Cho Gao District in My Tho Province (now Tien Giang Province), Trang began his career in 1928, working for leading troupes in the southern region.

His first play, Lua Do Long Son (Mind in Fire), was about social problems. He created 30 works and all highlighted the virtues of Vietnamese women.

After the August Revolution in 1945, Trang joined the anti-French force and worked in Sai Gon-Cho Lon.

After his death in 1966, Trang was posthumously awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize by the Government in 1996.

Under the project, Doi Co Luu (Miss Luu’s Life) and To Anh Nguyet (Miss To Anh Nguyet), which were staged first in the 1930s, will be restaged by young artists of the Tran Huu Trang Theatre, the region’s leading cai luong theatre (and named after Trang). Both plays feature women and their challenges and suffering under feudal society.

These plays have been restaged and filmed in many versions. Through the works, dozens of artists from different generations, have become stars.       

“By restaging Trang’s plays, I want to provide theatregoers with an old style of cai luong developed several decades ago. I believe that cai luong will live longer if artists keep the original art form,” Dien said.

VNS

Thu Anh