The Life Theater Group Celebrates Tet Early

The Lunar New Year season is the season for theatrical performances. And perhaps the earliest venue for celebrating the New Year belongs to the Doi theater group with their play "Tet Near, Tet Far."

Hong Trang (left) and Vo Ngoc Tan in the short play "Bringing Tet Home" - Photo: LINH DOAN

Theater lovers in the city are probably familiar with the Doi theater group, led by artist Hong Trang, as the group has been around for 16 years now.

Life Drama: Springtime Warmth and Human Kindness

Instead of performing the entire play as usual, the performance on the evening of January 28th, marking the end of the old year and the beginning of the new, presented a series of three short plays to the audience: " Embracing Tet Home " (directed by Minh Hai - Sao Thuy), "The Matchsticks" (directed by Hong Trang), and "What Remains " (directed by Vu Tran).

While other theaters often choose Lunar New Year plays with a boisterous, comedic style, "Life" opts for a deeper, more emotional approach.

The atmosphere of Tet (Vietnamese New Year) is not dazzling and vibrant on the stage, but rather imbued with the profound emotions of life and humanity in each excerpt.

Bringing Tet home is the heartfelt longing of parents for their children every spring. Tet is about reunion and togetherness; without children and grandchildren, parents don't feel like it.

Yet, sometimes children are indifferent, sometimes they make excuses about being busy and are uncaring about their parents' long and agonizing wait. The final afternoons of the year are therefore filled with a lingering sadness…

The Matchsticks is a story about children. A boy, angry at his busy parents for not caring about him, runs away from home. He meets two street vendors, orphaned children struggling to make a living. Which matchstick will light up these lonely little lives as spring approaches?

"Bringing Tet Home" talks about the heartfelt longing of parents for their children every time spring arrives - Photo: LINH DOAN

What remains is the story of three men, three different destinies, helping to deliver a baby for a woman while everyone else rushes home to celebrate Tet (Lunar New Year).

Three stories on the last day of the year are linked together by the warmth of human kindness. There is sadness, there are tears, but love will bring us closer together so that spring lingers for a long time, a spring filled with human warmth.

16 years of perseverance in keeping the theater group together.

The "Life Theatre" group currently holds monthly café theatre performances at 84 Nguyen Du Street. Group leader Hong Trang shared that maintaining this theatre format for 16 years has been a tremendous effort by the group members.

Short play "The Matchsticks" - Photo: LINH DOAN

For a time, café theater flourished, and Đời was one of the early theater groups. However, over time, café theater began to decline, and now only a handful of groups remain active.

The Life Theatre group faces many challenges, such as having fewer audience members than actors at some shows. From weekly performances, the group has now reduced its schedule to monthly performances.

But those young people from back then, now less young, still love and refuse to let go. Group leader Hong Trang is considered a skilled actress, trusted with many great roles at professional theaters like The Young World and New Theater..., yet even while performing outside, Trang still carefully saves up money to support Doi.

The stage was just a makeshift platform, a tiny few square meters, the props were simple, and the sound and lighting weren't up to standard. So what were people watching? Surely it was the actors' performances; only the inner strength of the actors could hold the audience's attention for hours.

The distance between the audience and the actors is extremely close, and the artists don't use microphones, so going to see a café theater performance requires concentration; no noisy conversations will ruin the emotional impact of the show.

Not chasing after superficial fame, during its journey, Đời has gained appreciative audiences. For example, playwright Hoàng Song Việt, whenever he has time, buys tickets for himself and his friends to watch Đời perform. At one point, seeing the group's difficulties, he even sponsored a performance for Đời at the Trần Hữu Trang Theater.

An unexpected childbirth situation in The Remaining Thing - Photo: LINH DOAN

What is it about Đời that makes people want to join the group? It's their serious work ethic. Although it's just a coffee shop theater, the group stages plays meticulously, as if they were performing on a big stage. Đời's plays delve into human lives, capturing glimpses of life's journey that resonate with and move the audience to tears.

In her journey to preserve her small but powerful theater group, Hong Trang is not alone, as she has members who are quite in demand outside the group but still rush back to Doi when needed, such as Vu Tran, Lam Thang, Vo Ngoc Tan, Vo Ngoc Tien, Ky Thao…

And so, life continued quietly in the spotlight of the city's theater, silently and persistently.

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LINH DOAN

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nhom-kich-doi-an-tet-som-20260129074707021.htm