Meritorious Artist and cai luong star Que Tran of HCM City will perform in new versions of famous plays Chuyện Tình Khâu Vai (Love Story in Khau Vai Market) and Thầy Ba Đợi  (Teacher Ba Đợi), both staged by the Vietnam Cai Luong Theatre in Hanoi in July. — Photo courtesy of the producer

The artists will play leading roles in Chuyện Tình Khâu Vai (Love Story in Khâu Vai Market) and Thầy Ba Đợi (Artist Ba Đợi), both featuring Vietnamese culture and lifestyle.

Tran will play Ut, an ethnic minority woman, in Chuyện Tình Khâu Vai, a production featuring the culture of ethnic minority people living in Ha Giang Province. 

The play depicts the love between Ut and her boyfriend, Ba, who belong to the different ethnic groups of Nung and Giay. 

The couple meets and falls in love at Khau Vai Market, a famous cultural and tourist destination in Meo Vac District. Their love faces challenges, so they escape from their village to live together. 

Meo Vac Market is a love market attracting young people who have a chance to talk for one night. It opens every year on March 27 on the lunar calendar. 

Tran’s colleagues, Meritorious Artist Phuong Loan, Le Tu and Vo Minh Lam, will also perform in the play. 

“Artists of the Vietnam Cai Luong Theatre offer cai luong in the style of the North. I’m happy to introduce the art in a southern style for audiences in Hanoi,” said Tran in an interview with Người Lao Động (Labourer) newspaper before her trip to Hanoi. 

“My colleagues and I will offer true cai luong, a traditional genre of southern theatre which began in the early 1920s in the Cuu Long (Mekong) River Delta region.” 

“We will try our best to bring the art closer to Hanoians,” added Tran, who has more than 20 years of experience in theatre. 

Chuyện Tình Khâu Vai was first staged in 2014, featuring 70 actors and musicians from the Vietnam Cai Luong Theatre. 

The play was restaged by artists of the HCM City-based Tran Huu Trang Cai Luong Theatre last year. Tran was chosen to perform the leading role, Ut. 

“I asked my actors, who were all born and live in the south, to visit Ha Giang, a northern moutainous province, to learn about the land and its culture and people. This helped to breathe life into the play,” said the play’s director Trieu Trung Kien. 

In his new version of Chuyện Tình Khâu Vai to be staged in Hanoi in July, Kien decided to invite Tran to play a role because he wants to “refresh the play”, said the director. 

“I hope Tran’s performance will leave a new impression on audiences in Hanoi.”  

Actress Que Tran has more than 20 years in cai luong. She has performed in hundreds of plays, videos and TV shows. — Photo courtesy of the Tran Huu Trang Cai Luong Theatre

According to Kien, his other play, Thầy Ba Đợi (Teacher Ba Đợi), will also be staged in a new version by Trân and actors of the Vietnam Cai Luong Theatre. 

The play is written by Kien and Hoang Song Viet from the Cai Luong Dai Viet Troupe, a private theatre which opened in HCM City last year.

Thầy Ba Đợi portrays the career of famous musician Nguyen Quang Dai, a guru of cai luong who helped develop tai tu music, a genre of traditional music and cai luong in the South. 

The play focuses on the time Dai moved from his birthplace, Hue City, to Sai Gon (now HCM City) to teach tai tu, and the musician’s contributions in promoting Hue royal music and cai luong.

Chuyện Tình Khâu Vai and Thầy Ba Đợi will be staged at 8pm on July 11 and 12 at the Hanoi Opera House, 1 Trang Tien Street, Hoan Kiem District.  VNS

Thu Anh 

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