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| BIG PROFITS: Theatres and drama clubs in HCM City earned big profits during the Tết (Lunar New Year) holiday. — Photo courtesy of HCM City Theatre Association. |
HCM CITY — Theatres and drama clubs in HCM City have got big profits during the Tết (Lunar New Year) season last week.
The Legend of Hero Yết Kiêu, a successful water puppet show staged by private Phương Nam Theatre, based on Vietnamese history, offered a fresh entertainment option to children during the New Year.
The hit portrays Yết Kiêu, a fisherman who lived under the reign of King Trần Nhân Tông (1258-1308). He was widely credited with supernatural abilities and achievements in the marine war against the Mongol-Yuan invaders in 1288.
The play’s director Trần Được used a staff of skilled artists to dazzle young audiences.
Beautiful scenes featuring green fields, rivers, villages, farmers and fishermen are also included.
“Our new play, The Legend of Hero Yết Kiêu, provides audiences with good content and quality images and sounds,” said Được. “We will stage two shows daily on the weekend in February and March.”
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| WATER PLAYS: Artists from the private Phương Nam Theatre perform a series of new water puppetry shows about Vietnamese culture and costumes celebrating Tết (Lunar New Year) in HCM City. — Photo courtesy of Phương Nam Theatre. |
Theatre actor and director Bạch Long of the private Đồng Ấu Bạch Long Troupe introduced his new show of tuồng (classical drama) based on Vietnamese fairy tales and legends.
The show, called Stories of the Kitchen Gods, highlights one of Lunar New Year’s ceremonial rituals that signals the start of the festive season.
In Vietnamese tradition, every family has three kitchen gods — two husbands and one wife — who keep up the kitchen and oversee the household’s affairs.
On the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month, the three kitchen gods take a flight on the back of a carp to the Kingdom of Heaven. They report the Jade Emperor on the family’s affairs over the previous year. People clean their houses and make votive offerings to aid the gods’ journey and ensure a good report.
“Our artists have worked to bring tuồng, a traditional genre of Vietnamese theatre which began a hundred years ago, with new concepts to meet the taste of young audiences,” said director Long, who is also the theatre’s founder.
Stories of the Kitchen Gods is still performed at the theatre in February.
Another production, Love Bridge, was released on January 26 and has attracted nearly 700 spectators per day.
The show features cải lương (reformed opera), a 100-year-old theatre form of the South.
It attracts theatre stars Võ Minh Lâm and Tú Sương of the Huỳnh Long Tuồng Troupe.
“We offer a new style of cải lương combined with modern concepts in structure, conversation and directing style,” said Lâm, winner of a Chuông Vàng (Golden Bell) award, a national cải lương singing contest organised annually by HCM City Television. — VNS
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