Simple yet moving plays

Each melody, each play, and the image of the police officer are vividly portrayed and imbued with cultural and moral depth.

The 5th National Professional Stage Arts Festival 2025 (from June 24 to July 7 in Hanoi ) on "The Image of the People's Public Security Soldier" introduced to the public many new works worth watching with political colors.

The Beat of Faith

The festival brings together 25 plays from 21 art units across the country, notably with the participation of traditional theater forms such as cheo, cai luong, Nghe Tinh folk songs, Hue opera, and central region's bai choi.

The play "Con ve voi me" (Cheo Ha Nam ) is a story about an old mother who hopes her comrades will find the remains of her son - the son who sacrificed for the Fatherland and the policeman who silently helps her. Not flashy, not dramatic, director People's Artist Tran Hoai Thu chose the narrative technique interspersed with psychological performance and used the rhythm of ancient Cheo to create a quiet but profound space. The Cheo lyrics are like folk prayers about the filial piety and kindness of today's policemen.

A scene from the Cheo play “Red Heart” of the Army Cheo Theater

In "Ben song trang" (Hung Yen cheo), the image of the police officer is brought back to contemporary village life. There is no "big case", no clear villain, but a hidden conflict in the community. There, the police officer is the one who keeps the traditional flow, preserves the peace of a small village, where the sound of a cheo drum is a heartbeat of trust.

With "Not Falling" (Nghe Tinh folk song), the police officer involved in solving the case became addicted to drugs but stood up and started over, worthy of returning to the ranks of police officers to protect the peace of people's lives.

The staging technique of alternating folk songs, folk songs, and lyrical dialogues makes the image of the police officer melt into the hearts of the people, becoming a collective character associated with the land and the soul of the countryside.

Fluent in folklore

One of the clear successes of this festival is the ability to smoothly and unforcedly transform modern themes into traditional artistic frameworks. The image of the police officer is "nourished" by folk materials and traditional language - as a way to affirm that: today's police officer, despite wearing military rank, is still a child of the nation, coming from the countryside, from the village.

"Lost" (Hue Opera - Hue Opera Theater) chooses the image of a security officer who converts a criminal so that he becomes a trustworthy cover to help solve a major drug trafficking case. The melancholy nam ai and nam binh passages, with the rich narrative quality of Hue, serve as a backdrop for the image of a man who silently devotes himself, torn between ideals and emotions.

Particularly daring is the play "The Devil's Game" (Bai Choi - Binh Dinh), when using the traditional Bai Choi game as a metaphor for high-tech criminal tricks and the battle of wits between the police and reactionaries disguised as cultural figures.

The director has exploited the technique of "modern fable in traditional structure", where the folk song becomes an alarm, a call to action. The play flexibly transforms between the language of the game and the structure of the crime, turning Bài Chòi - which is a folk game - into a sharp means of social criticism.

With the play "Oath on Flagpole Mountain" by Hai Phong Traditional Theater, there is a beautiful set with a heroic and tragic structure. The structure of the play has the color of classical Eastern tragedy, emphasizing the oath and sacrifice - highlighting the sacredness in the ideal of protecting the Fatherland. The vọng cổ element in the play is like a lullaby about loyalty.

More than just an artistic event, the festival is also an opportunity for us to realize: preserving identity is not only by recreating the past, but also by telling today's stories in the language of our ancestors.

"People's Artist Trinh Thuy Mui, President of the Vietnam Stage Artists Association, commented: "The subtle combination of folk materials and realistic themes has helped elevate art, affirming the topicality, humanity and appeal of traditional theater in the modern art flow."

Source: https://nld.com.vn/nhung-vo-dien-dung-di-ma-lay-dong-196250704212232667.htm