Since time immemorial, oral literature has been passed down from generation to generation through the ancient art of storytelling (kể chuyện). A popular diversion for young and old alike at many different types of rural social gathering, this art form also taught morality as well as serving to perpetuate the various proverbs, myths, legends and cosmology associated with particular ethnic groups. Over time there emerged a class of storytellers who learned the ancient tales by heart, eking out a meagre existence by practising their craft whilst travelling from village to village. This tradition is still found today amongst the ethnic groups of the central highlands. The Ê-đê, Ba-na and M'nông, for example, preserve a rich corpus of epic stories which are delivered at festival times in marathon 12-hour sessions by village elders charged with keeping the ancient art alive.

The hybrid art of sung storytelling in rhyming couplets (nói lối) is known to have existed from a very early date in this region, laying the groundwork for the later introduction of dramatic plot and clearly defined characters, the essential ingredients of folk theatre. A hybrid form of sung storytelling known as hát xẩm persisted amongst the Kinh majority in some parts of the country until as late as the early 20th century. This genre was performed mainly by blind minstrels, who set popular myths and legends to traditional folk tunes.

The traditional Việt folk art of ca trù singing is also believed to have religious origins. Scholars trace its origins back to a type of female singing known as hát ả đào, which was widely performed as an expression of worship during the Lý dynasty (1010-1225). As time went by it gradually became popularised, eventually becoming known by the alternative name ca trù (literally 'singing for reward'). By the turn of the 20th century ca trù had become a common form of entertainment in the north, with Khâm Thiên Street in Hà Nội as its main urban focus. However, during the 1940s criticism that ca trù had developed into a geisha-like entertainment dealt the genre a severe blow from which it has never fully recovered, and after 1945 it faded into obscurity. In recent years ca trù has been rediscovered and developed by a number of clubs, foremost amongst which is the Hà Nội Ca Trù Club, which meets on the last Sunday of each month at the Bích Câu Đạo Quân Temple, not far from the Temple of Literature. In order to help revive this ancient art form, the club recently launched the annual ca trù festival, attracting participation by performers from as far afield as Hà Tây, Hải Phòng, Thái Bình, Hà Tĩnh and Nghệ An Provinces. The villagers of Lỗ Khê in Hà Nội's Đông Anh District (considered one of the cradles of the art form) also stage festivals on the 6th day of the 4th lunar month and the 13th day of the 10th lunar month each year, at which singers, young and old, sit in a circle and perform a ceremony to worship the founders of ca trù.

Ca trù features a distinctive and highly technical vocal style which is so demanding that it can wear out a singer's lung power and vocal chords in a matter of minutes. Typically the ca trù singer accompanies herself by striking two phách (short bamboo drum sticks) against a bàn phách (a hollow bamboo instrument). Additional accompaniment is provided by one or more đàn đáy (a square three-stringed long-necked lute). In the old days members of the audience would also have been given drums to beat along with the music whilst savouring the performance.

Perhaps the most important catalyst in the development of contemporary Vietnamese folkloric performance was the appearance of the call-and-response dialogue song, a genre found widely throughout South East Asia which is still performed today at important events in the Vietnamese ethnic minority calendar, particularly amongst the Austro-Asiatic and Sino-Tibetan language families. Most extant versions of this art form - notably the ví đúm of the Mường, the lượn of the Tày, the sli bốc of the Nùng, the khắp of the Thái, Lào and Lừ, the sình ca of the Sán Chay, the ni cô of the La Chí, the vươn of the Giáy and the pả dung of the Dao and Pà Thẻn - take the form of a flirtatious male-female courting game in which boys and girls engage in sung poetic dialogue, testing each others' skills.

It was from such proto-theatrical origins as these that the celebrated northern Việt folk theatre hát chèo emerged during the latter years of the 1st millennium CE.