Playwright Vuong Lan - quietly paving the way for great themes

With works such as “Sea Storm”, “Sea Gate Night”, “Southern Route”, “Beyond the Limit”, “Nai Pass Wind”… still having current value until now, playwright Vuong Lan is considered to have made many valuable contributions to the Vietnamese revolutionary theater, being a pioneer in the theme of workers, building new socialist people…

On the morning of May 30, in Hanoi, the Vietnam Association of Stage Artists and the Institute for Research on Preservation and Promotion of National Culture organized a scientific seminar "Playwright Vuong Lan: The Silent Pioneer" with the participation of many artists, especially in the field of theater.

Conference scene. Photo: Thuy Du

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, People's Artist Trinh Thuy Mui, Vice President of the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations , President of the Vietnam Stage Artists Association, affirmed that playwright Vuong Lan is an outstanding senior member of the Vietnam Stage Artists Association, and a leading author of Vietnamese stage in the period from the late 1950s to 1974.

In more than 16 years of creative work, playwright Vuong Lan has had more than 10 plays. His works were staged by the Central People's Drama Troupe, the Southern Drama Troupe, the Hai Phong Drama Troupe, the Quang Ninh Drama Troupe and many other large professional drama troupes as well as other mass art units in the North at that time to serve the people and were warmly welcomed. He was a pioneering playwright who tackled the theme of workers, building new people of socialist Vietnam and had great success. He was also a pioneering playwright who tackled the theme of national reconciliation.

People's Artist Trinh Thuy Mui, President of the Vietnam Stage Artists Association, speaks. Photo: L.Thu

“He has been gone for 51 years, but his plays such as “Sea Storm”, “Sea Gate Night”, “Dear One”, “Southern Route”, “Night Ferry”, “Nai Pass Wind”, “Hand in Hand”, “Beyond the Limit” are as if they were just written, full of modern current events. Art units, especially the current drama genre, can all research and restore them to serve today’s contemporary life”, People’s Artist Trinh Thuy Mui expressed.

Clarifying that playwright Vuong Lan is a quiet pioneer, Deputy Director of the Institute for Research on Preservation and Promotion of National Culture, Editor-in-Chief of Vietnam Culture Magazine Nguyen The Khoa said that Vuong Lan is the first stage author to tackle the theme of workers, deeply attached to the Quang Ninh mining area, Hai Phong port city and the North-South transportation route of the great rear supporting the great frontline in the resistance war against the US. Although there is no big declaration, only quietly working and creating, but on this topic, it can be said that Vuong Lan is a great stage author, a quiet pioneer, having a strong encouraging impact and pointing out the secret to success for the next generation of stage authors to tackle this great theme that is very necessary but also very difficult to succeed.

Poet Tran Dang Khoa shares about playwright Vuong Lan. Photo: Thuy Du

Journalist Nguyen The Khoa also pointed out a very strange thing: while enduring the fierce B52 bombings of the US imperialists with the people of Hanoi, Vuong Lan sat down to write the play "Hand in Hand" or "For Tomorrow" about Vietnamese people on both sides who would resolve hatred, reconcile with each other, and find a common future.

At the conference, many researchers, stage authors, writers and poets analyzed the great contributions of playwright Vuong Lan to literature and stage. People's Artist Le Chuc commented that playwright Vuong Lan was a respectable person, paving the way for literature and art for the working class, specifically mine workers. He and a generation of artists created the golden age of Vietnamese stage. The silence of playwright Vuong Lan is the silence of great souls and great artists that awaken us today.

Some documents and artifacts about playwright Vuong Lan. Photo: Thuy Du

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Minh Thai believes that playwright Vuong Lan has succeeded in both dramatic literature and the language of directing and acting. When organizing conflicts, he pays close attention to the actual conditions and gives specific instructions on the spatial and temporal context to the directors.

People's Artist Le Tien Tho, writer Ngo Thao, poet Tran Dang Khoa, and playwright Le Quy Hien share the same opinion that the Vietnam Stage Artists Association, agencies, units, and families need to collect works and documents to prepare a dossier to propose the State to award the State Prize for Literature and Arts for the contributions of playwright Vuong Lan.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/nha-viet-kich-vuong-lan-lang-le-mo-duong-o-nhung-de-tai-lon-704013.html