Reformed theatre - cải lương
By the early 20th century more modern forms of theatrical entertainment aimed at the growing urban community were beginning to appear throughout the wider region. During the first two decades of the 20th century a style of music known as
nhạc tài tử (literally 'amateur music') appeared in the Mekong Delta.
A combination of traditional southern tunes, Bình Định-style tuồng and ceremonial tunes from Huế, tài tử is still celebrated today in the annual National Tài tử Festival, organised by Việt Nam Television.Nhạc tài tử subsequently evolved into a dramatic form under the dual influence of expatriate French comedy and popular theatre from neighbouring Asian countries such as bangsawan and likay. The result was cải lương or 'reformed theatre', a musical genre which initially employed many of the formal conventions of tuồng.
During the 1920s
cải lương troupes were set up in many parts of the Mekong Delta. In the early days these troupes performed mainly dramatisations of major works from Sino-Vietnamese literature, but as time went on playwrights began to adapt western plays, including works by Molière and Shakespeare. Thereafter western staging techniques (including the use of a proscenium stage and scenery) were increasingly adopted; these were later followed by innovations designed to attract audiences, such as
Folies-Bergère style dancing and Hong Kong martial arts movements.
From the 1930s onwards cải lương spread to many other parts of the country - by 1945 most chèo and tuồng performers in Hà Nội knew how to perform cải lương - but nowhere did it achieve the same degree of success as in its native south, where leading writers during the latter days of French rule included Nguyễn Thành Châu (Năm Châu, 1906-1978), Trần Hữu Trang (1906-1966) and Lê Hoài Nở (1908-2000). Indeed, it was because of the phenomenal popularity of cải lương throughout southern Việt Nam during the first half of the 20th century that modern spoken drama - which tackled many of the same contemporary themes - took so long to establish a foothold in Sài Gòn.
Nguyễn Thành Châu's most famous adaptations include Sĩ Vân công chúa ('Princess Sĩ Vân', adapted from Tristan and Isolde), Túy Hoa vương nữ ('Queen Túy Hoa', adapted from Mary Tudor) and Gió ngược chiều ('Counter-Current Wind', adapted from Ruy Blas), whilst his most popular original creations include Sân khấu về khuya ('The Stage at Midnight'), Men rượu hương tình ('The Wine Yeast and the Taste of Love') and Người và người ('Men and Men').Trần Hữu Trang wrote Đời cô Lựu ('Ms Lựu's Life'), Tô Ánh Nguyệt and Mộng Hoa Vương ('Queen Mộng Hoa'), while Lê Hoài Nở concentrated on writing satirical works and is best-known for plays like Anh chị ăn mày ('Brother and Sister Beggar'), Vó ngựa truy phong ('The Horse Chaser'), Nỗi lòng chị bếp ('The Woman Cook's Heart'), Ông Huyện Hàm Hàm, Thử làm bé ('Trying to be a Concubine') and Hội yêu chồng ('Husband-loving Association').
Together these three authors scripted the popular play Khi người điên biết yêu ('When Mad People Know How to Love') under the pen name Trang Châu Nở.After 1954 the art of cải lương continued to flourish in the south. A new training programme for cải lương actors and directors was offered from the outset by the Sài Gòn National School of Music (Trường Quốc gia Âm nhạc Sài Gòn) when it opened in 1956 and the decade which followed proved to be the most successful period in the genre's history; in the year 1965 alone five southern cải lương companies staged 56 plays by 50 famous writers, including the classics Nửa đời hương phấn ('Half a Life of Cosmetics'), Con gái chị Hằng ('Ms Hằng's Daughter') and Tấm lòng của biển ('Heart of the Sea') by Hà Triều (b 1939) and Hoa Phượng (b 1933), Núi Liễu sông Bằng ('Liễu Mountain, Bằng River') and Chén trà của quỷ ('Devil's Teacup') by Thiếu Linh (b 1931), Bông hồng cài áo ('The Rose Buttonhole') and Lỡ bước sang ngang ('Failed River Crossing') by Hoàng Khâm (b 1933), Người vợ hai lần cưới ('A Wife Twice Married') and Áo cưới trước cổng chùa ('Wedding Dress before the Pagoda Gate') by Kiên Giang (b 1928), Bọt biển ('Foaming Waves') and Tiền rừng bạc biển ('Money Abundant like the Forest, Silver Abundant like the Sea') by Nguyễn Phương (b 1932), Nửa bản tình ca ('Half a Love Song') by Hoài Linh (b 1921) and Nắng lên chùa tháp ('Sunlight Rising over the Pagoda Tower') by Mộc Linh (b 1931).
During this same period
cải lương presented in the northern dialect became increasingly popular in the Red River Delta, where numerous performing troupes were set up to present new work by emerging playwrights such as Phạm Ngọc Truyền, Lê Văn Chất, Song Bân, Sĩ Tiến, Đào Mộng Long, Tuần Vinh, Nhật Tân, Ngọc Thụ, Huy Uẩn, Nhật Minh, Ai Sơn, Tám Danh, Ngọc Cung and Ba Du.
The pace of development quickened after 1964 when northern-style cải lương was introduced into the syllabus of the Việt Nam School of Stage Arts (Trường Nghệ thuật Sân khấu Việt Nam, now the Hà Nội Academy of Theatre and Cinema) and a fully-fledged national company was established in Hà Nội, comprising two troupes - the National Cải Lương Company (Đoàn Cải lương Trung Ương), based in Hà Nội, and the Southern Region Cải Lương Company (Đơàn Cải lương Nam Bộ), the latter being given the task of operating in areas controlled by the government of South Việt Nam.
Immediately after Reunification in 1975 the teaching of cải lương in Sài Gòn was transferred to the School of Stage Arts II Hồ Chí Minh City (Trường Nghệ thuật Sân khấu II Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh, now the Hồ Chí Minh City College of Stage Arts and Film). Then in the following year the Southern Region Cải Lương Company became the Trần Hữu Trang Cải Lương Theatre (Nhà hát Cải lương Trần Hữu Trang), based in Hồ Chí Minh City. Today the training programme offered by the
Hồ Chí Minh City College of Stage Arts and Film is renowned throughout the country, whilst the
Trần Hữu Trang Cải Lương Theatre is widely regarded as the foremost exponent of
cải lương as it is performed in its original southern dialect. The latter's repertoire contains many
cải lương classics, including
Chim Việt cành Nam ('Việt Bird Southern Branch') by Nguyễn Dức Thuyết and Hưng Tân,
Thái hậu Dương Vân Nga ('Queen Mother Dương Vân Nga') by Trúc Dương, Hoa Phượng Tân and Hoàng Việt,
Tình yêu và lời đáp ('Love and Replies') by Nguyễn Trương Thiên Lý,
Rạng ngọc Côn Sơn ('Lustrous Pearl of Côn Sơn') by Nguyễn Xuân Phong and
Năng Xê-đa ('Miss Xe-đa') by Lưu Quang Thuận and Lưu Quang Vũ.
In 1978 the National Cải Lương Company became the
National Cải Lương Theatre (
Nhà hát Cải lương Trung Ương). It has since been given the task of researching and developing the art of
cải lương in the standard northern dialect and performing the now substantial repertoire of northern
cải lương. That repertoire embraces many important works written in the north between 1954 and 1975, including Lưu Trọng Lư and Huỳnh Văn Cát's
Người nữ diễn viên miền Nam ('The Southern Actress'), Phạm Ngọc Khôi's
Kiều and Ba Du's
Võ Thị Sáu, người con gái đất đỏ ('Võ Thị Sáu, Girl of the Red Earth') and
Máu thắm đồng Nọc Nạn ('Red Blood in the Nọc Nạn Fields'), together with more recent works such as
Cây đàn huyền thoại ('The Legendary Instrument') by Tất Thắng,
Bắc cầu Ô Thước ('Erecting the Ô Thước Bridge') by Nguyễn Thị Minh Ngọc and Bạch Diệp and
Lê Chí Viên by Lưu Quang Hạ.
Various other regional cải lương styles also exist, including cải lương from the central provinces, Khmer-language cải lương from Sóc Trăng Province in the Mekong Delta and cải lương hồ quảng, a hybrid Chinese-language variation of the genre which may still occasionally be seen in the Chợ Lớn (Chinatown) District of Hồ Chí Minh City.
Whilst audiences for other traditional Vietnamese theatre genres have declined over the past 30 years,
cải lương has to a certain extent retained its appeal in an era of MTV and computer games by continually appropriating elements from contemporary culture, including popular characters, plot scenarios and hit songs. Today it continues to develop in tandem with Vietnamese spoken drama, indeed many of its leading practitioners are active in both fields.
Nowadays the musical accompaniment to cải lương generally takes the form of a mixed ensemble of Vietnamese and western instruments. There are currently around 30 professional cải lương troupes nationwide, foremost of which are the afore-mentioned Trần Hữu Trang Cải Lương Theatre in Hồ Chí Minh City and the National Cải Lương Theatre in Hà Nội.
