The class of Shandong Opera Troupe with "What night is tonight"

(NLDO) - With only three actors, the play "Which Night Is Tonight" made the audience burst with emotions with its classy singing and acting.

With only three characters, the drama captivates the audience with many emotions.

On the evening of November 27, at the 6th International Experimental Theatre Festival - 2025, the play Tonight is Which Night by the Ngu Co Tram Hoa Drama Troupe (Shandong, China) created one of the most impressive highlights when it attracted a large audience and received long applause after each performance.

Not only captivating because of its dramatic story, the play also left a deep impression thanks to the way it resonated between the traditional spirit of Chinese opera and contemporary experimental theatrical thinking.

What Night Is Tonight - When Legends Are Not Just Old Stories

Inspired by the spirit of Tang Dynasty legends and chivalry, the play tells the story of grudges between three characters: Nhu Nguyet, Van Luong and a mysterious old man in the late Tang Dynasty.

Leaders of the Vietnam Stage Artists Association and artists in the Festival organizing committee presented flowers to congratulate Shandong Opera artists.

On the surface, this is a story with a legendary and historical color: a couple in seclusion, a trip to the capital to take the imperial examination, a benefactor whose life is saved, and the bonds of gratitude that lead to life-and-death conflicts. But going deeper into the structure of the script by screenwriter Tang Bao Vinh, the audience realizes: this is essentially a tragedy about moral choices, where people are constantly pushed into crossroads without complete answers:

It is noteworthy that the dramatic situations are not resolved according to the familiar clear-cut good-evil model, but operate on the "grey" area of ​​humanity, where good and evil are intertwined within a person. Nhu Nguyet is not only a virtuous woman. She is also a person with past wounds, deep fears and doubts. Van Luong is not only a faithful husband. He is also a person confused by ambition, loyalty and himself.

Ton Bang Trinh (Hoai Ngoc) and Xao Ngoc (Nhu Nguyet) in the play "Which night is tonight"

Here, the "legendary" spirit is not to glorify the ideal of chivalry, but to re-question the value of chivalry in a world full of moral paradoxes.

What Night Is Tonight - An Experimental Structure on the Background of Ancient Opera

Although it belongs to the traditional genre of opera, Which Night Is Tonight is not performed in a classical format but is organized by director Liu Jun Zhang with a very clear experimental mindset.

Instead of a linear narrative, the play creates "loops" of emotions and memories. The past is not just retold, but "re-presented" under many different perspectives. Therefore, the question "What night is tonight?" is not only a question about the real time of the stage, but also a metaphor for the blurring between memory - present - destiny.

Beautiful dance moves by artists of Shandong Opera Troupe

The director actively broke the traditional narrative rhythm, introducing many gaps in the stage, where light, music and the actors' bodies became "open signs". The audience did not just follow the story, but was invited to participate in a process of decoding.

Here, "experimentation" is not about innovating the form for novelty, but about expanding the expressive capacity of drama to touch the depths of human life.

Body language and music

One of the key elements that makes the play so appealing is the unique combination of traditional dramatic body language and contemporary stage rhythm thinking.

Young artists: Vuong Xao Ngoc (Nhu Nguyet), Vuong Soai (Van Luong) and Ton Bang Trinh (Hoai Ngoc) showed excellent mastery of the singing - speaking - physical movement techniques typical of Shandong opera, while also demonstrating the ability to perform subtle psychological acts, which is not always easy to see in conventional theatrical forms.

The most unique was the experimental performance of internal dialogue in the scene where Nhu Nguyet tried every way to sneak into Hoai Ngoc's room to assassinate him, but Van Luong sneaked along and stopped his wife without letting her know. The wonderful performance demonstrated the talent of the artists.

Xao Ngoc (Nhu Nguyet) won the audience's hearts with her emotional singing and acting talent.

In particular, the music by musician Luu Xuan Quang has created a sound space that is both traditional and modern. The traditional tones not only serve as a background but also interact directly with the emotions and actions of the characters, contributing to creating a pervasive emotional field.

The lighting of Dien Thang On - Tran Dao and the stage art of Tran Thang Binh also show intelligent restraint.

A demonstration of a viable testing path

What makes Tonight is Any Night so profound is not only its technique or aesthetics, but the way it opens a path for traditional theater in today's era.

The play shows that traditional theatre is not something that needs to be "museumized", but can completely become a vibrant experimental space if approached with creative thinking and philosophical awareness.

From the script of Tang Bao Vinh to the staging language of Luu Quan Chuong, all show a consistent spirit: not breaking tradition, but making tradition "dialogue" with the present.

Three artists from Shandong Opera Troupe left a deep impression at the 6th International Experimental Theatre Festival in 2025

In the context of the 6th International Experimental Theatre Festival – 2025, Which Night Is Tonight becomes a convincing proof that: experimentation is not a break with the past, but a process of regenerating artistic language from its own cultural roots.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/dang-cap-cua-doan-hi-kich-son-dong-voi-dem-nay-la-dem-nao-196251128062054534.htm