Colonial-era theatre
Plays by Molière and Corneille were translated into Vietnamese as early as 1913 by Nguyễn Văn Vĩnh and Phạm Quỳnh
for publication in the northern cultural magazine Đông Dương Tạp Chí (Indochina Journal), culminating in the first vernacular staging of Molière's Le malade imaginaire in 1920. That same year saw performances of the first homegrown plays in the Vietnamese language -
Ai giết người? ('Who's the Murderer?') by Tô Giang and
Già kén kẹn hom ('Being Choosy Turns Out Bad') by Phạm Ngọc Khôi. However, the true origins of Vietnamese modern drama are generally traced back to the staging of Vũ Đình Long's critically-acclaimed
Chén thuốc độc ('A Cup of Poison'), which was presented in 1921 at the Hà Nội Opera House, a venue hitherto reserved for French dramas performed by French actors.
Thereafter many Vietnamese intellectuals began taking an interest in western-style spoken drama, with its unfamiliar emphasis on the 'three unities' of time, place and action.
Established in 1921 by a group of writers which included Uẩn Hoa, Nguyễn Ngọc Sơn, Đoàn Ân, Trần Tuấn Khải and Tú Mỡ, the Uẩn Hoa Drama Association (Đoàn kịch Uẩn Hoa) subsequently became a focus for development, inspiring the establishment of several other amateur drama associations and troupes in the capital.
During this period numerous Vietnamese plays were written and performed alongside French plays in translation.
These included Bạn và vợ ('Friend and Wife') and Một người thừa ('An Extra Thumb') by Uẩn Hoa (Nguyễn Hữu Kim), Hai gia đình ('Two Families') and Cái vạ đồng tiền ('Financial Misfortune') by Tú Mỡ (Hồ Trọng Hiếu, 1900-1976), Nỗi lòng ai tỏ ('Who Understands my Heart') by Nguyễn Ngọc Sơn, Nặng nghĩa tớ thầy ('Loyal Servant') by Tương Huyền, Ông Tây Annam ('The Annamese Westerner') by Nam Xương (1905-1958), Không một tiếng vang ('Not an Echo') by Vũ Trọng Phụng (1912-1939) and Uyên ương ('An Inseparable Couple') by Vi Huyền Đắc (1899-1976).However, since at this time acting was still considered something of a dubious profession, it was still usually necessary to borrow chèo or tuồng performers in order to stage a play. This fact, coupled with the unfamiliarity of audiences with the new genre, resulted in Vietnamese spoken drama usually being presented on a programme which also featured traditional Vietnamese theatre.
Change came about during the 1930s when intellectuals in Hà Nội resolved to raise the standards of scriptwriting and performance with a view to establishing Vietnamese spoken drama as a professional art form in its own right. Perhaps most significant was the work of Thế Lữ (Nguyễn Thứ Lễ, 1907-1989), founder of the New Poetry Movement (
Phong trào Thơ mới, see
Modern literature before 1945) who believed that a country without a spoken drama tradition was uncivilised. In 1937 he set up his own dedicated theatre troupe, the Thế Lữ Drama Company (
Đoàn kịch Thế Lữ) to perform new works and train a new generation of stage artists. Thế Lữ is regarded as one of the founders of modern Vietnamese drama and was awarded a posthumous Hồ Chí Minh Prize in 2000.
Other important drama companies set up during the late 1930s include the Tinh Hoa Drama Troupe (Ban kịch Tinh Hoa), brainchild of a group of leading intellectuals and artists such as Đoàn Phú Tứ, Trần Bình Lộc, Nguyễn Lương Ngọc, Phạm Văn Hạnh, Nguyễn Đỗ Cung and Vũ Đình Liên; the Hà Nội Drama Company (Đoàn kịch Hà Nội) set up by writer Chu Ngọc (b 1912); and the Quê Hương Troupe (Đoàn kịch Quê hương) established by writer Phan Khắc Khoan (b 1916).
By this time Hà Nội had quite an active spoken drama scene, although both product and performance remained heavily influenced by theatrical developments in France. One of the most popular playwrights of the 1930s was Vi Huyền Đắc, whose works included
Cô đốc Minh ('Headmistress Minh'),
Kim tiền ('Money'),
Trường hận ('Eternal Resentment') and
Ông ký Cóp ('The Miser'). Works by playwrights Đoàn Phú Tứ (1910-1989,
Ghen, 'Jealousy'), Khái Hưng (1896-1947,
Đội mũ lệch, 'Wearing a Hat the Wrong Way',
Tục lụy, 'Worldly Suffering' and
Đồng bệnh, 'Suffering the Same Illness') and Nguyễn Huy Tương (1912-1960,
Vũ Như Tô and
Cột đồng Mã Viện, 'General Ma Yuen's Bronze Pillar') also became popular at this time. During the late 1930s poet and historian Huy Thông (Phạm Huy Thông, 1916-1988) developed a new theatrical form known as 'Verse Drama', for which plays were subsequently written by Phan Khắc Khoan, Vũ Hoàng Chương (1916-1976), Trần Tử Anh and Huy Thông himself.
As noted earlier, spoken drama initially failed to take off in the south, largely due to the newfound popularity there of
cải lương (see
Reformed theatre - cải lương), which dealt with essentially the same subject matter but with an emphasis on the visual rather than the literary, which appealed more to southern audiences. Not until the establishment of the Tonkin Drama Troupe (
Đoàn kịch Đông Kinh) in 1938 by a group of northern intellectuals under the guidance of French producer Claude Bourrin did the art form finally begin to take root in Sài Gòn.
By the early 1940s Vietnamese drama was increasingly becoming a vehicle for nationalist sentiment, a trend fuelled by the growing drama movement amongst the political prisoners incarcerated by the French. By this time the Thế Lữ Drama Company had changed its name to the Anh Vũ Drama Company (
Đoàn kịch Anh Vũ), switching its focus to the presentation of socialist realist plays with more critical overtones. Thereafter many patriotic works were penned and performed at the front by mobile theatre troupes with a view to motivating those fighting against colonial repression. Most noteworthy were:
Tin chiến thắng Nghĩa Lộ ('News of the Nghĩa Lộ Victory') by Thế Lữ;
Cô Thục ('Miss Thục') by Chu Ngọc;
Trở vê ('Return') by Đoàn Phú Tứ (1910-1989);
Tô Hiệu by Nguyễn Công Mỹ;
Bắc Sơn and
Những người ở lại ('Those Staying') by Nguyễn Huy Tưởng (1912-1960);
Trên nớ ('Over There') and
Thúng thóc ('The Rice Basket') by Bửu Tiến (b 1918);
Du kích thôn Đoài ('Guerilla of the West Hamlet') by Lộng Chương (Phạm Văn Hiền, b 1918);
Lửa cháy lên rồi ('The Fire is Burning') by Phan Vũ (b 1926);
Vượt ngục ('Jailbreak') by Nguyễn Văn Niêm (b 1919); and
Ba Người thợ ('Three Workmen') by Lưu Quang Thuận (b 1921).
