The image of President Ho Chi Minh is built in an impressive work of art at the 6th International Experimental Theatre Festival in 2025.
Without fanfare or exaggeration through grandiose scenes, "The Man in Rubber Sandals" - a play recently performed by the Vietnam Drama Theater - has deeply moved people with its profound aesthetic choice: recreating history through a new, restrained but haunting theatrical language. That is where the simple image of a pair of rubber sandals becomes a symbol for the great journey of the Vietnamese people and President Ho Chi Minh.
"The man in rubber sandals" and the epic about the Vietnamese people
For Kateb Yacine, Vietnam is a country that yearns for freedom and is: "The leading flag of the national liberation movement against colonialism and imperialism in the 20th century".
It was that special sentiment that helped him write "The Man in Rubber Sandals" as an epic about the Vietnamese people: a people who "rose from misery, slavery, from the fierce blood and fire of war, shook off the mud and stood up shining", resilient, indomitable but also extremely humane in their aspiration for independence, freedom and "the right to pursue happiness".
People's Artist Giang Manh Ha - Vice President of Vietnam Stage Artists Association - presented flowers to congratulate the artists participating in the play "The Man in Rubber Sandals"
"The Man in Rubber Sandals" - Theatrical chronicle of a nation in search of freedom
Unlike many historical works that follow a linear narrative model, the play "The Man in Rubber Sandals" does not retell history using the formula "events - characters - timeline", but creates a chronological space, where history is perceived as a spiritual flow.
Kateb Yacine's original script is 304 pages long, with more than 1,800 lines of dialogue and hundreds of characters, covering a vast space of modern Vietnamese history.
From Nguyen Tat Thanh leaving to find a way to save the country, to Nguyen Ai Quoc's revolutionary activities, then President Ho Chi Minh later with the Communist Party of Vietnam leading the Vietnamese people to the Dien Bien Phu victory - "shocking the five continents".
A stage production that created many emotions for the audience in Nam Dinh
In the stage version of the Vietnam Drama Theater, Doctor - Meritorious Teacher - director Le Manh Hung edited and selected the first part of the original script, focusing on Uncle Ho's journey to find a way to save the country.
This is not a narrowing, but a deliberate artistic choice: to highlight the "ideological core" of the play - the image of Ho Chi Minh in historical and humanistic dimensions.
Ho Chi Minh – an ordinary but great man
One of the most touching points of the play is the way the image of President Ho Chi Minh is built: not as an "immovable monument", but as an ordinary - simple - but great person from that very ordinary life.
Here, the director does not emphasize great moments in a conventional heroic way, but goes into the core of personality: Simplicity in lifestyle; Frugality in living; Humility of a leader who always considers himself a "loyal servant of the people".
The choir was beautifully staged in the play "The Man in Rubber Sandals".
The image of rubber sandals is therefore not just a prop detail, but an ideological symbol: a symbol of a way of life, a philosophy of life and a revolutionary morality.
Through those sandals, the audience sees his whole life of wandering, hardship but purity - a leader who is not separate from the fate of the people, but accompanies the people in every step of history.
A new staging: Not historical drama, not political commentary
Director Le Manh Hung made a remarkable comment: The script of The Man in Rubber Sandals deals with history, but is not a historical play; deals with politics, but is not a political play. Fiction and creativity play an important role, carefully considered in relation to reality."
This creates a new feeling, helping the audience not "watch history", but rather walk inside history, blending into the flow of years of arduous struggle.
The young actors were full of pride when participating in this meaningful stage production at the Festival.
When history becomes a question of the present
More importantly, the play is not just about remembering the past. It raises a question for the present: If the previous generation went through the war with simple rubber sandals and strong will, how will today's generation - living in peace - move forward?
At this point, The Man in Rubber Sandals goes beyond the scope of a stage play. It becomes a cultural, historical, and moral reminder, reminding us of our responsibility to our national memory, to the future, and to our own ideals.
Source: https://nld.com.vn/goc-nhin-mot-tri-thuc-algeria-ve-chu-cich-ho-chi-minh-qua-nguoi-di-dep-cao-su-196251128065719562.htm
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