Other folk drama genres
A number of other regional folk drama styles developed concurrently with cải lương, each drawing heavily on the wealth of local folk songs and instrumental music of its geocultural provenance.
Perhaps the best-known of these styles is
ca kịch Huế (sung drama of Huế) from central Việt Nam, the origins of which may be traced back to the second half of the 19th century when the royal music of the Nguyễn court became popularised and enriched with the
hò and
lý tunes of local
Bình Trị Thiên folk songs (named after the three provinces of Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên Huế where they had developed). The resulting
ca nhạc Huế (music of Huế), embracing both accompanied songs and solo instrumental pieces, is still performed widely today amongst the Kinh community. During the 1920s this
ca nhạc Huế was developed further into a full-blown theatrical form, giving birth to a new genre of traditional performance known as
ca kịch Huế (sung drama of Huế). Today it is still performed by a number of companies, but most notably by the
Thừa Thiên Huế Provincial Music Theatre Company (
Đoàn Ca kịch Tỉnh Thừa Thiên Huế), which has won awards for its presentation of classic playlets by Xuân Hoàng, Nguyễn Công Hoan and other leading writers.
Another important genre to develop amongst the Kinh communities of central Việt Nam was
dân ca bài chòi (
bài chòi sung drama), which allegedly originated during the early 20th century when the card calls of soldiers playing poker in the watchtowers were turned initially into rhyming chants and later into full-blown popular songs. During the 1930s and 1940s some of these songs were developed into full-blown music theatre and during the First and Second Indochina Wars many revolutionary
bài chòi dramas were written behind the lines in support of the war effort. This art form is still performed today by a number of provincial performing troupes in central Việt Nam, one of its leading exponents being the
Bình Định Provincial Bài chòi Music Theatre Company.
The development of popular folkloric drama was not confined to the Kinh majority. A style of folk theatre known as
du kê or
yu kê (not to be confused with the Khmer popular folk theatre
yike), equivalent to
lakhaon bassac in Cambodia, developed amongst the Khmer ethnic communities of the Mekong Delta during the early years of the 20th century and between 1908 and 1939 several itinerant river-borne troupes plied the Hầu Giang-Bassac River in large sailing boats, pulling in to give performances at major centres of population. Strongly reminiscent of Chinese opera, the genre incorporated numerous influences, including that of
tuồng, Khmer classical dance and even Indian and western musical films. It is presented to the accompaniment of popular music performed on both traditional and modern Khmer and Vietnamese instruments.
Folkloric drama also developed during this period amongst the Chăm communities of southern central Việt Nam, whose popular dance-dramas such as the Ma Hoa-Trà Mứ are believed to have evolved from more ancient genres once performed at the former royal court of Champa.
The development of folk drama has continued in Việt Nam until comparatively recently. As late as the 1970s a type of folk song indigenous to the Kinh communities of Nghệ Tĩnh known as ví dặm underwent development into a kind of sung drama and several full-length pieces known collectively as dân ca Nghệ Tĩnh (Nghệ Tĩnh sung drama) have since been written and performed. Within the past 30 years efforts have even been made to dramatise the Red River Delta folk song quan họ.
