VIETNAMESE THEATRE

The Vietnamese theatrical art comprises several genres:

Popular Opera

The oldest genre, originates from mimes accompanied with folk songs and dances. The Vietnamese of the Red River delta continually improved it for thousand years. A mixture of scholarly literature and popular speech, it drew its themes from daily life, and lashed at the most sacrosanct feudal values through the acting of the clowns.
The popular opera needed neither elevated stage nor setting. The spectators stood around in the courtyard of the village communal house where performances usually took place. Sitting in a corner, the musicians accompanied the singers, and played the role of a collective partner, accentuating a stage effect or commenting upon the acting.

Pupet shows

The Pupet shows have known glorious days. As early as the 11^th century, it was part of village festivities. The themes as well as the songs are drawn from the Haùt Cheøo repertory. Puppet shows attract a vast public made up of grown-ups as well as children.

Water Puppets

Most civilizations have a puppetry tradition. Yet only in Vietnam have puppeteers taken their art to the water. Since the eleventh century, this unique cultural offering has been kept a guarded treasure of a few families along the Red River Delta.

The art evolved in the delta villages around Hanoi long before it was introduced to the court there more than 800 years ago. A stele in 1121 records that a water puppet show was staged for the king's birthday party.

Few other than those who lived nearby ever saw these performances. Water puppetry remained a strictly local entertainment, with shows usually performed after the spring harvest or at special celebrations like an important wedding. At these shows, villagers first paid homage to the spirits, thanked them for the harvest and then sat back to enjoy the show.

In 1956, in order to preserve the cultural tradition, the Thang Long Water Puppet Troupe was established and a training program was set up in Hanoi. Today it is possible to see the puppets perform in downtown Hanoi on a regular schedule, and many tourists feel it is a show not to be missed.

As soon as the lights dim, there's a whacking of drums, a clashing of cymbals and the rat-a-tat-tat of firecrackers. Festival flags pop up, oddly dry, from the jade water. Golden dragons thrash about and spit fire. The acrid smell of gunpowder fills the smoke-veiled pool. When a monkey puppet jumps out of the water to climb a palm tree and then splashes back into the water, you may ask, "However did he do that?" But quickly, the illusion of real life grabs hold of you, and banishes such questions. Instead you'll howl with delight as the good guys defeat the bad guys in ferocious battle, or clap as unicorns play ball, and fairies and holy animals dance. Only after the final bang of the very last firecracker when the puppeteers wade on-stage are you liable to wonder again just how it's done.

If you can't visit the Red River Delta in person, the water puppets can take your imagination there. A peasant plays the flute as he ploughs the fields on his water buffalo, butterflies flutter over lily pads, and a boy catches croaking frogs. A fox is chased away but not before it manages to steal a duck. The drums roll as a fisherman hauls in a huge fish which gets away in a frenzy of flapping fins. Then the silly fellow mistakes another fisherman for his catch and plops a basket over his head.

To achieve this magic the puppeteers hide behind a curtain to the rear of the red-roofed pagoda on-stage. They stand waist-high in water. In the past, they fought the chill by drinking nuoc mam (fermented fish sauce) . These days they wear neck-high rubber wet suits under colorful costumes to ward off hypothermia. With ten foot long bamboo poles submerged under the water they manipulate dozens of puppets. Usually it requires only one puppeteer to handle a puppet, but two or three puppeteers work together when the puppet is heavy or the action is complicated. When a dragon spits fire, for instance, one puppeteer makes it flick its three-foot tail and slither through the water, while another manipulates the string that rips off the plastic covering the firecracker in the dragon's mouth so the popping noise comes right on time.

One novel feature about water puppetry is that the watery stage is a character in its own right. It changes from a shimmering pond, reflecting a pagoda and swaying palms into a rippling river perfect for boaters, into a churning sea spewing the smoke of battle.

Among the longest-running theatrical productions in Asia, the Thang Long show is also one of the most exciting. That's partly due to the musicians. The ferment begins with Cheo, the melody sung by a chorus backstage and two women on-stage, or an introduction by Chu Teu, a bald, fat-cheeked clown. The bamboo flutes, bronze drums, gongs and xylophones keep up the momentum.

Listening to the shrill Vietnamese songs describing what's happening to the puppets is surprisingly enjoyable. That's because the individual acts are never more than five minutes long, and the story lines are simple and immediately translated so you know at once what's going on. The pace is so fast and the numbers so varied, there's little chance for boredom in the hour and a half performances.

It's folklore, not politics that provides the lore for the shows, said Judith Ladinsky, chair of the U.S. Committee for Scientific Cooperation with Vietnam and associate professor of preventive medicine at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Ladinsky, who has attended many shows on her fifty trips to Vietnam since 1980, especially enjoyed one for the children of Hanoi at which the stage was set on stilts in Hoan Kiem Lake itself. "The children giggled, chattered and chewed on sunflower seeds," Ladinsky recalls.

"Puppeteers are recognized as highly skilled artisans. Although people usually decide in their teens to become puppeteers, it's not something you do for a couple of years and then leave," says Ladinsky.

The most recent recruit of the Thang Long troupe has worked there six years, and although the fifty puppeteers of the troupe look young, most are in their forties. Apprentices typically must build up their skill and strength during a six-year training, starting with stagecraft, movement, acting and singing in the first three years, before being allowed to perform.

The Thang Long water puppetry troupe performs at 57B Dinh Tien Hoang Street in Hanoi by the shore of Hoan Kiem Lake. In the lobby, tourists can buy video tapes of the performance. For an additional fee, they can take still photographs and video recordings. There is another wonderful troupe outside the center of Hanoi at 32 Dong Truong Ching. Water puppetry is now also performed at the zoo in Ho Chi Minh City.

Spoken drama

Spoken drama resembles modern plays in other countries. Born under French influence, the Spoken Drama began with a translation of Molieøre’s: Le malade imaginaire in 1920. For a long time, it did not enjoy the public’s favour, featuring neither songs nor dances. But later, the Spoken Drama truly conquered the stage. In the gene of Kòch Noùi, we have also Poem Drama, in which, the artists use the poem reciting instead of popular spoken.

Classical Opera

Classical Opera was also called Songs with Gestures, and later Songs with Show dress. The Classical Theater presented tragicomedies and comic operas. It is an original synthesis of songs, dances and dramatic acting, whose interpretation aims at the essential, at the concentration of effects, and the stylization of gestures, while at the same time serving an educational purpose. The origins, of the classical Vietnamese theater can be traced back as far as the bronze age, when the Lac, ancestors of the Vietnamese people, founded an independent state, based on hierarchical and feudalistic society.

A great festival took place every Spring to mark the beginning of the planting season. This custom still existed in the recent past, though in less colorful form, in the Thai area of the North Vietnamese Highlanders, and in the delta of the red River. Numerous entertainments were organized on this occasion: dances, comic pantomimes, singing of rounds, etc....

For the origin of the Vietnamese Theatre, we have different versions:
a/-As previously stated, under the King Tran Nhan Ton (1278-1293) during the war against the Mongols invaders, Traàn Höng Ñaïo captured an entire Chinese theatrical troup, let by Ly Nguyen Cat, a talented performer;
b/-A second version talk that Ly Nguyen Cat was a Chinese refugee, resettled permanently in Viet Nam, under the reign of King Tran Du Ton (1341-1369). Ly Nguyen Cat was entrusted with the task of training young Vietnamese selected by the Imperial Court, as dancers in the Opera. The finest artist trained by Ly Nguyen Cat as Lien Thu Tam, who distinguished in a play entitled "Offering the divine peach". Ly Nguyen Cat’s 1^st troup known under the name of Phöôøng Cheøo was composed 12 actors and actresses, who could play every character: warriors, honest and faithful mandarins, traitors, servants, etc...
c/-The 3^rd version talk: It was a Chinese Taoist called Tong Dao Si, who had come to Viet Nam for the death of a queen of the Le dynasty (980-1009) and taught some gifted young people a certain number of roles and tunes.
Their performances were so successful, that innumerable country people were said to have come to Tong Dao Si to profit his teaching. But those above legends are rejected by the professional actors of classical theatre. According to them, their profession, whether it be Cheøo Coå or Haùt Boäi won its credentials in China at King Han Vu De’s Court (140-86 B.C.). Their guardian angel is Dong Phuong Soc, a dignitary at Han Vu De’s Court.
Enriched by the addition of the Chinese talent, the Hat Bo rapidly became an art form greatly appreciated by the public. Poets and Scholars contributed their share by providing the Hat Bo with considerable repertory of new material. Thus thank to their vitality and their ability to assimilate, the Vietnamese were able to adapt the foreign influence to their own genius; and from the Chinese theatre, they created a national art form remarkable for its vigor and its originality. The classical opera was favoured by the intelligentsia and the aristocracy, but the artists were disregarded. We must stress the fact that the artists of the Hat Bo were always spurned by the Vietnamese elite. This traditional contempt arises from the fact that King Le Thanh Ton (1460-1490) had decreed the prohibition for comedians and singers to compete in the attribution of mandarinal functions. Later the emperor Tu Duc was to anathematize actors and their families when he pronounced his famous sentence: Actor do not belong to the human kind! As a matter of fact Tu Duc had been incensed to find an actor courting a woman who acted as a courtesan, but who was in fact the actor’s own mother. This unfortunate scene was the source of the emperor’s opinion on comedians. But, if the emperor Tu Duc scorned the lack of morals of actors, at least he was fond of this artistic medium.

Indeed in those days, the Haùt Tuoàng was exclusively performed at the Court of Hue. Thanh Bình Ñoäi, the imperial college included 150 maidens, under Tu Duc, who had the right voice for this form of art. They were trained to perform the parts of both sexes.

The Saint Patron of the Theatre

Like any other art, the Hat Bo has its own Patron Saint, whose effigy, an earthen statuette dressed in brocade, invariably accompanies the troups in their pilgrimage. The statuette which represents a young boy, is placed in a carved wooden nich, behind a vase in which offerings of joss sticks are planted. Before his appearance on stage, each actor prostrates himself 4 times before Ong Lang, the Saint Patron, in order to avoid losing his memory and voice.

Legend told: Ong Lang was a prince whose favorite entertainment was the theatre. For fear of punishment from his father, the King, he attended performances on the sly. One evening the actors played so well that the delirious public invaded the stage to acclaim them. Under the heavy sudden weight, the stage, a frail scafolding made of wood and bomboo, collapsed on the prince’s head and kill him instantly. But his soul survived to protect the guild of comedians. He is credited with breathing inspiration into them, giving them good voice and facilitating their improvisations on stage.

Scenery, Staging, and Gestures

The Hat Bo is essentially suggestive. One has, in fact, to rid oneself from the limited confines of the stage and employ a good deal of imagination.

A few chairs may represent a mountain range;
A overturned chair, a hill;
A chair on a table, a throne;
A silken screen stretched between two staffs forms and impassable bulwark;
A table may represent a court room, a counter or a restaurant;
And a branch may substitute for a forest.
The staging poses no real problems for the spectators, however, since the symbolism is standardized.

Some of the pantomimes are clear: to open or shut the door or gate, the actor makes an expansive gesture in the air. In other cases the actors proceed with more subtle allusions: a man weaving a flag decorated with fish may, for instance, be indicating that the stage is innundated with flood, or that windstorm is in full swing. The absence of scenery and the lack of accessories and technical equipment compels the actor to adopt a set of unvarying, conventional gestures, which are either noble and rythmic or affected and grandiloquent, to picture the feudal society of olden times. Each gesture has its own meaning, and to each sentiment there is a corresponding motion. To express sadness, for example, the actor, whether he is playing the role of a beggar, a pirate, a prince or a priest, automatically executes the proper gesture which corresponds to the emotion in question. There are moreover, gestures appropriate to each character and particular to each scene, which the actor must learn by rote and accomplish faithfully in an undeviating order. One understands why the training of an actor sometimes requires many years.

Make-up, Costumes and Head Gear

In the Haùt Boäi, the artist resorts to many artifices of make-up, the function of which is to transfigure to actors into standardized characters types. The colors thus applied indicate the characters’ temperment and customary behavior pattern. The art of makeup is in itself highly demanding. One needs an excellent memory to recall the masks of several hundred characters. The painter’ s hand must be steady and really skillful for the reproduction of the strange arabesques on the actors’ faces, done with lamp-black, vermillion and assorted colored powders.

Generally speaking, each actor is responsible for the preparation of his own makeup; and except for the Tho dia (God of the earth) who wears a real mask, all masks are painted on the very faces of the actors. If the makeup operates under strictly conventional rules, so to do costumes and hair-dressing require a great concern for correctness. Costumes are virtually identical with those which would be worn by the character in real life, although some embellishments may be added to accentuate the effects of stage lighting. Moreover some costumes and head-gear are invariable.

The king at the Imperial Court, for example, always wears a long, silken tunic of yellow color with very large sleeves, decorated with red or gold dragons. In addition the costume required of a king calls for a hat called Vöông Mieän, a kind of double culotte decorated with nine dragons in gold thread, inlaid with glass jewels. A red belt fitted with copper plates and black leather boots shaped like the prow of a gondola must also be worn. In battle uniform, the same costume is worn, but with the trousers wrapped around the legs and tucked into the boots, and an apron embroidered with dragons worn over the tunic.

The queen wears a long tunic of yellow or white silk with narrow sleeves embroidered with a phoenix set in sparkling stones, bordered by pendants and trinkets. A decorated apron is also worn over her trousers. Civil mandarins wear long tunics embroidered with unicorns, with large sleeves having silk balancing flaps, considered full dress at the imperial Court. A belt embroidered or inlaid with turtle scales, black leather boots, high black hats and red pompone complete their costume. Military mandarins wear the same costume as the civil, except for the hat. A red hat is used to indicate a mandarin who has received the 1^st Doctor of the nation degree; and a red and blue hat indicates a recipient of the highest award in military competitions. A tunic in blue or red with narrow sleeves and a simple belt is also part of the military’s costume.

Orchestral and Choral effects

The classical Vietnamese theater is a kind of opera. All the plays are accompanied by songs, and are characterized by the alternation of arias and recitations. A small orchestra, usually located in the wings to the right of the stage, accompanies. The orchestra includes a vertical violin, a guitare with silken strings, a saùo, a trumpet, a clarinet and a long narrow drum. The music consists of popular tunes arranged according to the maestro’s inspiration. The Hat Boi also presents dances, such as the lantern dance, and the libation dance, in which the artists execute chore-ographic figures, often very original.

The Classical Theatre Repertoire

The repertoire of Hat Boi is very diversified and includes works which are real masterpieces. Written in a polished style, and according to certain rules of versification and composition, the Hat Boi plays are adaptations of famous episodes in the history of China or Viet Nam. The author refrains from any invention himself, and must follow exactly the outlines of the anecdote, the novel or the legend. Formerly the best authors were to remain anonymous, but since 16^th century in the classical theater, poets began to sign their works. The most famous writer of the time was Ñaøo Duy Töø (1572-1634) an eminent scholar and strategist, native of Thanh Hoa province Central Viet Nam. Banned from the literary competitions for being son of comedian, he emigrated to the South.
Fortune didn’t smile on the young man immediately, however, and he began his life in this new country as a common buffalo boy for a nobleman. He composed a long poem called The Hill of the reclining dragon, which was a kind of profession of faith, hinting at the existence of a man of great learning and virtue who await his hour. The poem was widely circulated among the local people who believed that they saw in the author the reincarnation of Khong Minh, the great Chinese strategist of the Three Kingdom era. Ñaøo Duy Töø ‘s reputation as a literary man soon came to the attention of the provincial governor who rewarded the poet with his daughter’s hand in marriage. Ñaøo Duy Töø later became First cousellor to the Lord of Cochinchina, built the famous Ñong Hoi Well and contributed greatly to the defeat of the Northern attackers. It was Ñaøo Duy Töø who initiated the South Vietnamese into the techniques of the classical theater, the sole entertainment which he enjoyed during his exile. At his death, he was elevated to the rank of Marquis, and buried in Binh Dinh province, the birth place of many highly reputed actors. The most noted successor of Ñaøo Duy Töø was Ñaøo Taân, one of Ñaøo Duy Töø’s descendants. Born in 1846, Dao Tan received the Licence en Letters degree, and started his life as an author in 1872. A talentist dramatist, he bequeathed to posterity a large number of plays. He died in 1908 to the great sorrow of theater lovers, who erected a sanctuary to his memory at Viet Thanh, and an other on the Chinese island Hai Nam.

The Reformed Theater

The revival of the classical theater by Dao Tan at the end of 19^th century did not last long. Paralleling the political upheavals of the time, Vietnamese society was subject to profound disturbances resulting from the impact of Western influence and modernization. The classical theater was gradually losing ground to a new type of the theater known as the Reformed Theater which originated in South Viet Nam, where western influence was more pronounced.

The principal supporting song in the Reformed Theater is the Vong Co, literally: Nostalgia for the Past, which was first sung in 1919 in Bac Lieu province. Its author was a musician named Cao Van Lau better known as Sau Lau. The song was an adaptation of a classical tune Hanh Van (Wandering Clouds).

The Reformed Theater itself was born one year earlier, in 1918, with a play written by Tong Huu Dinh. This play entitled Luc Van Tien, was a kind of operetta in which, one of the principal melodies was the Töù Ñaïi (the 4 generations), itself derived from the song Tu Dai Canh (scenic views of the 4 generations), a classical song from the former Imperial City of Hue. Encouraged by his friends, Tong Huu Dinh formed a troup and presented to the public a four-act play on the theme: National Loan. Later he received the assistance of many other artists, and together, they founded an itinerant troop which was warmly received throughout Cochinchina in the prewar period. Their success was greatly enhanced, moreover, by the introduction of the phonograph in 1923. From 1930 to 1945, the Reformed Theatre faced the formidable competition of motion pictures and modern music. Great efforts were made to maintain the popularity of the Reformed Theatre. The success of this effort can be judged by the ever increasing numbers of large theatrical troops and the enormous popularity enjoyed by the stars.

Unlike the Occidental Theater, where all subjects are freely treated, the Vietnamese theater remains rooted in the old traditions, thus maintening its educative role both in civic virtues and family morals. A real School of great Souls, dedicated to the exaltation and illustration of the permanent value of the nation an the people, this theater bears within itself the reasons which prelude any doubt as to its future vitality.