Reporter (PV):

People's Artist Le Tien Tho: Reviewing the plays from "Fire of Phien Ngung" (Vietnam National Traditional Theater), "Looking back at a dynasty" (Gia Lai Traditional Arts Theater), "Hero" ( Ho Chi Minh City Opera House), "Forever with the mountains and rivers" (Da Nang Traditional Arts Theater)... historical themes are still the main theme of the plays, composed and staged by the units with highly conventional and general artistic characteristics.

The historical figures are portrayed by the artists in a grand and emotional way. The works are recreated vividly, aiming to send historical lessons to today's audience with a new approach in script structure and problem-posing. With the appearance of historical figures such as Khuc Thua Du, Khuc Thua My, Ho Quy Ly, Tran Thu Do, Tran Canh, Ly Chieu Hoang, Tran Anh Tong, Admiral Bui Thi Xuan, Tran Quang Dieu... the plays contribute to enlivening the historical flow of the nation.

People's Artist Le Tien Tho.

The work must promote beauty and human values, be predictive, and achieve high aesthetic value. That requires artists to work hard, work day and night, and strive for their whole lives. The performing arts units in the Central region from Hue to Khanh Hoa, which have just experienced a historic flood, urgently practiced for the festival. After the performance, they had to return immediately to overcome the severe impact of the natural disaster.

Despite such difficult circumstances, the artists still came to Hanoi to attend the festival, to see that even though the regulation stated "gold and silver medals cannot exceed 35% of the number of participating actors", all the artists and actors present here were prize winners - the prize of love for the profession that is worthy of respect.

PV:

People's Artist Le Tien Tho: A theater without young artists will wither away, just as a theater without an audience will not exist. Looking at this festival, it is still a joy to see young faces from many traditional art units capable of expressing the complexity of the roles of Tuong. The basic elements of Tuong art such as "thanh-sac-thuc-tinh-khi-than" are still expressed by young artists in very difficult roles, such as expressing Ho Quy Ly's concerns in the play "Looking back at a dynasty" (Gia Lai Traditional Art Theater).

The old saying goes: “There is a story to translate the play” (each play has its own story), when the director has performed the play, the actors will transform into the character, pushing those plays into the character and the character must possess the elements of “joy-anger-sorrow-happiness-love-hate” so that the audience can feel the value of the character as well as the idea of ​​the play. At the festival, we found a number of young artists that we liken to “fire” lighting up the art of Tuong today. The fire of the actors is also the light that leads the audience to the Tuong stage.

As for those of us in the profession, we will have confidence in the young people who are continuing to develop this traditional art form. Although they are called young artists, they have appeared in previous festival seasons. Coming to this festival, they are more mature and steady in their profession. It is known that many art units have not recruited any young actors in the past 10 years. That is worth thinking about!

PV:

People's Artist Le Tien Tho: Not just now, but for a long time now, we have repeatedly "warned" about the serious lack of scriptwriters and directors of the art of Tuong. In this year's festival, the names of authors such as Nguyen Sy Chuc, director Hoai Hue, director Hoang Quynh Mai, director Giang Manh Ha... These authors and directors are all People's Artists, having received the State Prize for literature and art; but new names and young authors are absent. This is a concern.

Through the festival, we suggest that management agencies, schools, and relevant agencies quickly organize seminars to frankly recognize weaknesses and strengths, and at the same time find solutions to overcome them. Training courses and script writing camps for the art of Tuong must be quickly organized.

A scene from the play “Fire in Phien Ngung” by the Vietnam National Traditional Theatre won a gold medal at the 2025 National Tuong and Folk Opera Festival. Photo: VIET LAM

PV:

People's Artist Le Tien Tho: The festival shows that there has not been any impressive performance that the audience will remember for a long time. The reason for this lack is that the author and the author who adapted the play have not yet combined the three elements of the structure of the play, which are "narrative-drama-lyricism".

Regarding directors, there are people who have directed up to 5 plays, and staged many works, so it is easy to have duplicate works. As we know, the art of theater is centered on the actors, the director must create "space" for the actors to show off their personalities and character situations, but there are directors who use scenery to cover up the art of performance.

Another reality is that many units define the purpose of participating in the festival as hunting for medals to propose for titles. Regardless of the structure, the theme, the unit leaders, the art directors, the directors let the actors appear in the play. Therefore, there are redundant roles in the structure, there are classes that only focus on singing to show off their voices.

PV:

People's Artist Le Tien Tho: It can be seen that the festival was successfully organized with the presence of traditional art units, despite the difficulties of human resource shortage, funding, merger mechanism... but the artists still tried their best and showed their enthusiasm through their roles on stage. At each performance, they were always welcomed and cheered by a large audience.

The issue of audience is a matter of survival. Many young people today have not learned much, so they have not sought out traditional culture. They are more extroverted and less introverted. This also means that in education, we have not promoted the traditional culture of the long-standing theatrical arts, passed down by our ancestors. Therefore, many young people do not understand what is Cheo, Tuong, Cai Luong... I used to feel very sad when many people asked if Tuong art originated from Peking Opera.

The festival is held every 3 years, so the management agencies need to have guidelines, requesting the units participating in the festival to search for scripts early to stage, the works must have a new spirit, new themes... Avoid the situation where the festival still only revolves around old stories about the love of kings and queens, historical figures that have appeared many times in previous plays... There must be big problems in modern social life, because literature and art must show the function of reflecting contemporary society.

The festival is held regularly, but the artists do not have the opportunity to stay and watch to exchange experiences. We propose that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism coordinate with relevant agencies to organize a workshop to evaluate the quality of art, give suggestions for amending the organization regulations, award regulations, and the Art Council to limit the shortcomings in the festival, and find solutions to improve the quality of art.

PV:

    Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/van-hoa/doi-song/bao-dong-do-nguon-nhan-luc-sang-tao-tuong-1015226