Chèo Theatrical Art and the Future development (Part 2)
How good are Chèo’s chances of survival?
A disturbing question remained as
the curtain descended after Vietnam ’s
first National Traditional Chèo festival held in 2001 in ha Long City
Watching five young actresses
play Xúy Vân, a classical character, might dispel worries about the future of Chèo.
Although senior actors’ experience is necessary, the continuity of Chèo depends
on a greater stage of characters and, of course, on more community support. To
restore the traditional art of Chèo, recent improvements have focused on
theatrical facilities and training. Experienced artists have been encouraged to
pass their knowledge and skill on to young actors.
The French dominated Vietnam from 1884 to 1945, causing the county to
become increasingly Westernised. Urbanization and industrialization also had an
impact. Traditional Chèo gradually fell out of favor with city dwellers,
especially after the First World War. In order to survive, artists tried to
reshape Chèo. The Chèo of Nguyen Huu Tien, for example, tended toward realism
and imitated Western drama. Nguyễn Đình Nghị adapted his work on the basis of
traditional Chèo; nevertheless, in general Chèo was fading.
After the August Revolution of
1945 the Government supported the recovery of Vietnamese traditions, including Chèo.
In 1957, a group of Chèo researchers collected over 100 skits from artists in
four traditional Chèo central of northern Vietnam :
east (Thái Bình
Province ), west (Hà Tây province),
north (Bắc Ninh
Province ), and south (Hà Nam
province). Their research and editing of traditional Chèo plays achieved
encouraging results. However, the modernization of Chèo did not succeed in bringing
the audiences back to the theatre.
According to Chèo researcher - Hà
Văn Cầu, between 1959 and 1964, Vietnam ’s
ministry of culture held several workshops to restore classical Chèo skits. Each
workshop lasted from one to three months.
After Renovations in 1986,
competition from modern entertainment such as TV, radio, movies, and jazz created
even more difficulties. Artists performed only extracts. “The future is very difficult
to predict,” Duong Ngoc Duc said about reconstruction of the theatre Mr. Duc is
former General Secretary of the Association of Theatrical Artists. He added, “No
one can ensure we will have regular audiences once the theatre is rebuilt.”
The success of the First National
Traditional Chèo Festival in ha Long challenges Mr. Đức’s fears, showing that Chèo
is still vital enough to attract audiences. Given the enthusiastic response in
Ha Long, we can rest assured that Vietnam ’s
audiences still enjoy traditional Chèo. The deceased play with Tao mat succeeded
in modernizing Chèo plays by reinterpreting the features of traditional Chèo. Modern
Vietnamese will discover two important elements in Chèo: The depth of the
Vietnamese soul and the social conduct of the traditional Vietnamese community.
The Ministry of Culture and
Information plans to hold Chèo festivals every five years and to offer medals
to actors or actresses rather than to award plays. But now more worries arise:
According to Hà Văn Cầu’s Collection of Classical Chèo, there are only seven
famous classical Chèo plays.
What’s more, a paradox exists as
the art form is passed down. Senior actors are the trainers, yet some find it
hard to recognize young talents and do not believe their young successors can
portray the essence of Chèo. And the, in a recent shift, formerly independent Chèo
groups have merged with dancing and spoken drama groups.
“This tendency is inevitable,” Van
Su, from the Department of Performing Arts in the Ministry of Culture and
Information, said. “Theatre without a particular strength or a favorable neighborhood
– even the Hanoi-based Vietnam Chèo Theatre, the one best known in the country -
can survive only by travelling like a mobile troupe of the past.”
The Quảng Ninh Chèo troupe based near
Ha Long Bay manage by singing Quan họ folk songs and Chinese-language songs for
tourists, mostly from neighboring China, instead of giving Chèo shows. Some
actors have quit the troupe to sing Chèo for puppet shows at a beach park.
As both the government and the
community try to revive this art, Chèo stages cross the country will hopefully
light up more regularly.
Comments
Post a Comment