The image of the People's Public Security soldier through theater festivals

From the topic area considered to be unique and quite difficult to exploit on stage, in recent years, plays about the People's Public Security Forces have been invested in and staged by more and more units. Along with the richness in quantity and content of the works, the image of the Public Security Soldier, the People's Public Security Forces through many periods has been conveyed vividly, multi-dimensionally, aiming to meet the increasingly high spiritual needs of officers, soldiers and people.

Reflect more diversely, vividly and comprehensively on the People's Public Security force

If we only count the National Professional Stage Arts Festival on the image of the People's Public Security Forces, the number of works about the People's Public Security Forces is quite large. Organized by the Ministry of Public Security in coordination with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Vietnam Stage Artists Association every 5 years, each festival season is a bumper season of stage works about the People's Public Security Forces. In 2005, the festival had 18 art troupes participating in 18 plays, belonging to 4 categories.

Scene from the play “The End” – the work won the Silver Medal at the 5th National Stage Arts Festival on the image of the People's Public Security soldier.

Of which, there are 13 Spoken Dramas, 2 Cai Luong plays, 2 Cheo plays, and 1 Folk Opera play. In 2010, the festival attracted 17 troupes with 5 genres, including 11 Spoken Dramas, 1 Cai Luong play, 3 Cheo plays, and 2 Folk Opera plays. In 2015, there were 20 troupes participating with 4 genres, including 12 Spoken Dramas, 3 Cai Luong plays, 3 Cheo plays, and 2 Folk Opera plays. In 2020, there were 27 art troupes with 33 plays, belonging to 4 genres, including 4 Cheo plays, 6 Cai Luong plays, 5 Folk Opera plays, and 18 Spoken Drama plays. By 2025, the festival will continue to attract 21 professional stage art units nationwide with 25 works, including 4 Cheo plays, 4 Folk Opera plays, 2 Cai Luong plays, and 15 Spoken Drama plays. Also in 2025, right after the festival, Hanoi audiences will continue to have the opportunity to watch many highly appreciated theatrical works on the theme of the People's Public Security Forces.

If you follow the festivals and cultural and artistic events of the People's Public Security Forces, it is not difficult to see that the People's Public Security Forces are portrayed on stage more comprehensively. The works exploit more areas of public security work, from investigation and solving crimes to security and intelligence; from the outstanding achievements of the People's Public Security Forces through the periods to the implementation of major policies such as bringing regular police to the communes, implementing mergers, streamlining the apparatus, building a truly regular, elite, modern People's Public Security Forces, meeting the requirements of tasks in the new situation. This result, along with the participation of professional art units and artists across the country, is the companionship, sharing, and active support of the Public Security Forces of units and localities. Many plays, from the time of staging, rehearsal to performance, have had significant changes, more clearly portraying the image of police officers on stage, avoiding regrettable mistakes that only insiders can be sure of.

Discussing this issue, Major General, People's Artist Nguyen Cong Bay, Deputy Director of the Department of Political Work, Ministry of Public Security, frankly expressed that in the past, stage scripts often only exploited a number of areas in the work of the People's Public Security Forces. The authors of the stage field do not understand much about the aspects of public security work, so they will rarely write about this field. Even directors and actors may not understand much about the lives and specific work of police officers and soldiers. Therefore, there will be certain limitations in investing in stage works on this topic. However, in recent years, the Ministry of Public Security has chaired many stage script writing camps on the topic "For national security and peaceful life", organized many practical penetration sessions, and held many seminars and in-depth professional exchanges between artists of many generations. Through each creative camp, the source of stage scripts about the People's Public Security Forces is significantly supplemented, with increasingly richer content.

Many young actors have achieved success when playing the role of police officers.

Still need more interesting works about the police of the people, for the people

In recent stage works, the theme of the People's Public Security Forces has been conveyed more comprehensively. From the Criminal Police, Security, Intelligence to the Traffic Police, Mobile Police, Prison Guards, Fire Prevention and Fighting Police and Rescue Police, etc., all have been exploited with interest. It is known that, along with activities to promote creativity and supplement script sources, the Public Security of units and localities also accompany and contribute professional comments to art units during the process of staging works. Through plays about the People's Public Security Forces, people understand the life, fighting, working and studying of the Public Security officers and soldiers, thereby sharing, sympathizing and unifying with the People's Public Security Forces in all areas of work, ensuring national security and maintaining social order and safety. Honoring police officers through theatrical works contributes to encouraging and motivating police officers and soldiers to strive to improve their political and professional qualities, be ready to receive and excellently complete assigned tasks, and be determined to build a clean, strong, disciplined, elite, and modern police force.

According to Dr. and playwright Nguyen Dang Chuong, the Ministry of Public Security's organization of delegations of authors to go on field trips, launch creative writing nationwide, and provide financial support for units to stage works is a special concern for the development of literature and art in general, and for the field of theater in particular, including the National Theater Arts Festival on the image of the People's Public Security soldier. The 5th festival in 2025 alone has shown the richness and diversity of theater about the People's Public Security force. The works have vividly portrayed many aspects, many fields, many tasks, many challenges, difficulties, many hidden corners of life, in social life that have been and are weighing heavily on the shoulders of the People's Public Security soldier. Many plays have created strong emotions for the audience through the image of the People's Public Security soldier. That image contains happiness, bitterness, joy, sadness, will, determination, aspiration, love, hardship, difficulty, glory, responsibility, anxiety, contemplation, talent, courage... and above all is the virtue of sacrifice. Sacrifice for the people, for the country.

Scene from the play “The Third Person” – the work won the Gold Medal at the 5th National Theater Arts Festival on the image of the People's Public Security soldier.

The humanistic values, the values of the stage works about the People's Public Security Forces have led the audience to feel, contemplate, cleanse and purify their souls to live a good life, do good things, eliminate evil things, and together build a happy and civilized society. However, it cannot be denied that many stage works about the People's Public Security Forces still have limitations such as the image of the Public Security Soldier is still vague. Some plays lack authenticity. From the construction of the plot, the structure of the work, the construction of events, situations, circumstances and the dialogue of the characters are imposed by the author and director, forcing the characters to speak according to the author's subjective ideas, so the audience sees that character, that situation, that situation does not exist in real life. Sometimes, only those who create theatrical art understand the police officer on the outside, in the information that the media reports daily, but do not understand the core, the nature, the hardships and sacrifices, the deep inside that has become the flesh and blood of the police officer.

Dr. and playwright Nguyen Dang Chuong also believes that the history of the People's Public Security Forces is closely linked to the Revolution. This is a fertile land for artistic workers to plow to create works of high quality in terms of ideology, content and art. Our Public Security Forces are the People's Public Security Forces, so there is a great need for plays that explore the issue of the Public Security Forces living in the hearts of the people, the people's feelings for the Public Security Forces, the flesh-and-blood bond between the people and the Public Security Forces, the people are the fulcrum to create the image of the Public Security Forces and there are many other interesting issues that need to continue to be explored on stage in the future.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/van-hoa/hinh-tuong-nguoi-chien-si-cand-qua-cac-ky-lien-hoan-san-khau-i778513/