What are the different forms of Vietnamese theatre?

Tuong and cheo are both Vietnamese traditional theatrical art forms. Vietnamese tuong originated in China and was influenced by Chinese opera. 

Cheo, however, is authentically Vietnamese. If Chinese traditional theatre is exemplified by Beijing opera and Japanese theatre by noh dramas, then traditional Vietnamese theatre is best represented by cheo.

How popular is cheo in Viet Nam?

Cheo hasn't always been as popular as it was at the First National Traditional Cheo Festival, held in Ha Long City, Quang Ninh Province from October 15-23, 2001. Over 700 artists from fourteen cheo companies attended, performing fifteen plays among them.

Even though the quality of life in Viet Nam has improved since Renovation began in 1986, traditional art in general and cheo in particular have met indifference and have failed to compete with more popular entertainments such as Western music and TV. Cheo performances in the cities have often played to empty houses. Reduced box office revenues forced managers to trim the plays to only excerpts. Even villages where cheo originated were unable to attract audiences. Young people, especially those in the cities, turned their backs on the art form.

The situation was so critical that the Ha Long City festival organisers weren't expecting to attract much interest. They were in for a big surprise.

So why was the festival so successful? One reason seems to be because the festival returned to the origins of cheo. Artists performed only traditional, authentic cheo. The programme included no modernised plays. The festival also provided an opportunity for those involved to review and assess Viet Nam's classical cheo plays through edited and adapted versions and then decide which elements to preserve and which to let go. The intent was to perform traditional cheo yet ensure that the performance related as appropriately as possible to contemporary Vietnamese life.

What are the origins of cheo?

Since the first millennium B.C., the Red River Delta has been the cradle of the Viet people's wet-rice-growing civilisation within a culture reliant on villages. When farmers finished harvesting, they organised festivals to entertain themselves and thank the gods who had supported them. They presented the first cheo dramas in the courtyards of communal houses dedicated to the village tutelary god (thanh hoang).

Bronze drums were part of ancient Vietnamese culture. For millennia, farmers have beaten drums to ask the gods for rain. It is not surprising, therefore, that the central musical instrument of cheo is the drum.

Bronze drums

Cheo originated in the tenth century from folk music and dance, especially tro nhai - simple mimetic skits. These skits showed the lives of

These skits showed the lives of oromary people as well as members of the roya, family. Over time, writers consolidated cheo's short stories based on these skits into longer, united plays.

Most significant in this development was the Vietnamese capture of a soldier from the Mongolian army in the fourteenth century. The soldier was an actor who introduced Chinese opera to Viet Nam. Previously, cheo involved speaking and sometimes the rhythmic reciting of folk poems but no singing. As a result of the captured soldier's influence, cheo turned into kith hat or sung drama.

In the fifteenth century, King Le Thanh Tong, who was deeply influenced by Confucianism, restricted the performance of cheo in his court. Without royal patronage, cheo returned to its original supporters, the farmers. It drew on nom stories, which were Vietnamese verse narratives written in modified Chinese characters. By the eighteenth century, this form of cheo had become widely influential. Cheo continued to develop and reached its peak by the end of the nineteenth century.

What are the dramatic characteristics of cheo?

Cheo and water puppetry are unique products of the Red River Delta civilisation, but cheo is the more refined art form. Cheo plays are funny and lyrical and end happily.

Unlike tuong, which extols the epic deeds of members of the aristocracy, cheo describes the life of ordinary country people. It gives voice to farmers' aspirations for a peaceful life in the midst of an unjust, feudal society. Many of the plays also show the harsh lives of women ready to sacrifice themselves for others.

Cheo embodies a desire for happiness and a harmonious social world. Good inevitably wins in the struggle between good and evil. Kind-hearted and gentle students always pass their exams and become mandarins, and the faithful wife is always united with her husband.

Cheo describes the life of ordinary country people

Cheo's moral messages reflect the benevolence of Buddhism and the virtues of Confucianism, including the latter's emphasis on harmonious social relationships. Step-mothers must love their husbands' children. Mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law must live in harmony. Friends should treat one another as if they were members of the same family.

An examination of a number of classical cheo plays provides an understanding of cheo's themes. Thi Kinh, the Goddess of Mercy (Quan Am Thi Kinh), for example, is a story about a good woman, Thi Kinh. She is the victim of a glaring injustice yet becomes a Bodhisattva. Lu'u Binh and Dtaing Li is about how the friendship between two students and about fidelity between husband and wife allows the main character to overcome all difficulties.

In Chu Mai Than, the wife, Thiet The, so craves a rich life that she leaves her husband to become the concubine of a mandarin. The mandarin's jealous wife bullies her; Thiet Thd dies in ignominy. Xily Van in the play Kim Nham has a husband who is a long way from home. A merchant seduces her; she feigns madness to leave her husband and finally kills herself after being abandoned.

Audiences tend not to judge 'Thiet The and Xuy v an because the characters' own behaviour condemns them. Instead, audiences sympathise with the characters, who express women's aspirations for love in a society constrained by Confucian morality.

What characteristics are typical of cheo characters?

Stereotyping. The characters in cheo are conventional and standardised. Unlike the characters in spoken drama, their personalities and psychology don't change during the play. They are drUnken men, deaf teachers, wealthy men, prime ministers, students, flirtatious women, and buffoons. Cheo's minor characters are so interchangeable among the plays that most of these parts have no names. However, over time some of these characters - such as Thi Kinh, Thi Mau, and Thiet The - escaped from convention and anonymity to become strong personalities.

Buffoons play an important role in cheo plays because satire is a characteristic of the genre, as it is on the traditional stages of other Southeast Asian countries. Buffoons amuse audiences, especially in sad stories. According to Shakespearean tradition, life is a mixture of happiness and sadness. In cheo, buffoons and funny scenes are an opportunity for ordinary people to lash out at the vices of a feudal society, its kings, mandarins, village officials, and the rich. Cheo's buffoons were free to ridicule just as the fools did in the royal palaces of European kings. For example, Chu Mai Than has a hilarious scene in which the first wite of local official uan 'ly gets into a jealous quarrel with the second wife.

Buffoons amuse audiences

There are two types of satiric characters in cheo. The main one is the buffoon, including he nrdi (buffoon dancing without a stick) and he g(ty (buffoon dancing with a stick), who is often a servant. The second type may appear in various roles, such as fortune-teller, medium, drunkard, or village chief. Sometimes these characters provoke laughter that is not directly related to the play, since the buffoon (or the fortune-teller or drunkard, etc.) may comment on characters and incidents in society at large.

Satire in cheo is always linked to romance, another significant feature. Cheo is romantic because it expresses people's individual emotions and feelings and reflects the common concerns of all people: their concern for love (as expressed by the characters Thi Mau and Chau Long), for friendship (represented by Luu Binh and Dirung Le), and for compassion (as found in Thi Kinh, the Goddess of Mercy). Characters, especially women, struggle with fate, making cheo similar in some ways to Greek tragedy, except for the humour and happy ending.

What dramatic techniques are used in cheo?

Narrative. Cheo gives voice to the farmers of the Red River Delta. Its stories differ from those of the classical European theatrical tradition, which evolved from Aristotle. Unlike European narratives, which choose a dramatic event in the life of a character and follow it to its inevitable conclusion, stories involving cheo characters unfold through numerous scenes and activities throughout the hero's or heroine's life. As a result, one doesn't find Aristotle's dramatic unity of time, place, and action in cheo drama.

Oleo's narrative method is not realistic but instead is based on conventions and stylisation, similar to tuong and Brechtian staging. Cheo is also rich in folk stories and narration. These characteristics determine cheo's language. Early skits incorporated songs, dances, gestures, and speech. From these came scenes in the lives of the characters. When combined, these scenes formed the body of the play.

Cheo does not have the fixed structure of five-act plays, as is the case in the Aristotelian theatrical tradition. Rather, cheo artists frequently improvised during their performance. The play was extended or cut depending on the inspiration of the artists or the requirements of the audience.

Improvisation is important because cheo is an art form that combines speech, singing, dancing, and music to tell a story. Speech may be combined with poems and folk songs. Poems often have two parts and four sentences, with characters displaying their own way of reciting lines. When singing, artists must pronounce their lines clearly (cheo differs from tuong in this respect) to express the character's feelings. Unlike European opera in which a singer must memorise arias and perform them according to the directions of the conductor, cheo artists are free to modify their songs to convey their characters' emotions. The number of cheo airs is undetermined, but according to estimates, there may be more than 200.

The minimum accompaniment for cheo singing is two string instruments, the nguyet and nhi, and a flute. Musicians use percussion — especially drums and cymbals — to add excitement; they beat small drums to maintain the rhythm for dancing and singing.

How are villagers involved in a performance?

Whole villages take part in cheo. Traditionally, the stage is a sedge mat spread in the courtyard of the communal house. A backdrop may provide the scenery. The musicians sit on two sides of the performing mat, and the audience surrounds the stage. Cheo musicians act as a kind of Greek chorus, commenting on and participating in the action. The dialogue between artists and musicians sometimes even includes the audience to create an exciting atmosphere simtlar to a modern "happening."

In the past, cheo artists were farmers without much money for staging, musical instruments, costumes, or. props. Their plays weren't lavish affairs, yet through convention and stylisation in speech and singing, they created space (mountains, rivers, oceans, etc.), time (day, night, dozens of years, etc.), weather (rain, sun, etc.) and backgrounds (fire, fight, etc.) in the imaginations of the audience sitting around the small mat-stage.

Thi Kinh, the Goddess of Mercy (Quan Am Thi Kinh) provides an example. To describe the heroine on her way to seek Buddhist conversion, the artists sing "Long Journey" (Dulang tru'ang) followed by drUms and bells to replicate the sounds of a pagoda. A song about Buddha follows. Other examples of these techniques include singing a song about rowing a boat to convey the idea of crossing a river and then a different song about the landscape to convey the idea of arrival at the other bank.

A cheo performance follows a regular scenario, beginning as follows:

• A drum rolls.
• The artists respond by calling "Da!" (Yes!) The music begins.Two buffoons dance with torches to keep the audience back from the mat.
• Two performers — a man and a woman — sing the first two sentences, and the other performers harmonise with them.
• The performers move to the prelude, where an actress sings, praising the king, who had brought prosperity and a peaceful life to the people. She summarises and comments on the play about to follow. The main performance begins.

In addition to special techniques for breathing, speaking, singing, walking, etc., artists pay attention to twisting their hands, wrists, and arms. All these constitute the basic cheo movements.

What is the origin of expression the wronging of Thi Kinh?

The expression comes from the cheo play Thi Kinh, the Goddess of Mercy (Quan Am Thi Kinh). Thi Kinh and her husband, Thien Si, are a well-matched and happy couple. One night the husband falls into a deep sleep after hours of studying. As Thi Kinh fans him, she discovers an ingrown facial hair, which is considered an ill omen. Since she does not want to awaken him, she quietly takes a knife to his neck to remove the ingrown hair.running; they accuse Thi Kinh of attempted murder, She is banished from her in-laws' house. Grieving, she disguises herself as a man and becomes a "monk" with the religious name of Kinh Tam at Van Tu Pagoda.

A girl named Thi Mau, the daughter of a rich family, lives near the pagoda. She mistakenly believes that the new monk is a man, falls in love with "him," and visits the pagoda often to catch a glimpse of "him." She flirts shamelessly with the monk, but "he" does not respond to her overtures. Disappointed by the monk's rejection, Thi Mau returns home to seduce her house servant, No. She becomes pregnant.

Village custom requires that unmarried pregnant girls be punished. Thi Mau accuses Kinh Tam of being the father. On the basis of these accusations, the superior monk drives Kinh Tam out the front gate of the pagoda. After Mau delivers, she abandons the baby at the pagoda gate. Kinh Tam is compassionate and takes up the newborn to beg for milk from nursing mothers. The baby survives and grows to adulthood. One autumn evening, Kinh Tam dies, and the truth of her gender is revealed. Everyone discovers that the charges against her are unjust.

This is a model cheo play in plot and "life bits." It is also a good example of the secularisation of Buddhist tales.

Why are good friends compared with Luu Binh and Duong Le?

Why are good friends compared with Lim Binh and Duong Le?

Luu Binh and Duong LE is a famous cheo play about two young men. One is from Son Tay (now Ha Tay Province) and the other from Bac Ninh Province. They study with the same master teacher. The rich Luu Binh neglects his studies for a profligate life. The poor Duong Le continues to study in earnest. Duong LE passes the examination and prospers as a mandarin, while Luu Binh fails. Luu Binh's failure is not his only misfortune. He continues his drinking and gambling, becomes very poor, and lives alone in misery. Finally, he approaches Duong Le for help.

Duong Le is aware of Luu Binh's former opulent life style and thinks that if he gives Luu Binh money, his friend will only continue his bad habits to the neglect of his studies, and then his condition will worsen. Duong Le pretends to be a disloyal friend; he refuses to receive Luu Binh and drives him away. On the other hand, he asks his concubine, Chau Long, to take some gold, follow Luu Binh, and care for him in a manner which would allow him to pursue his studies.

Having been chased from the home of his former friend, Luu Binh is deeply ashamed and resolves to take up his education seriously. Chau Long helps Luu Binh in daily life. Three years later, he passes his exams, but when he returns to his village, Chau Long has disappeared.

Duong Le sends his men to congratulate the new laureate with gifts and invites him for a visit. Luu Binh plans to use the visit to chastise his friend for abandoning him in time of desperate need but then offering friendship in time of success. When Luu Binh arrives, Duong Le asks Chau Long to greet his friend. Only then does Luu Binh realise that Duong Le, through his dear concubine, gave him the help he needed.

This typical cheo play combines lyricism and dramatics.

Why is an unfaithful woman compared with Thiet The?

Chu Mai Than is a strong-willed man. He earns his living by gathering firewood while he studies. But he is married to Thiet The, a good-for-nothing, lazy woman. Fed up with her husband's poverty and serious pursuit of studies, Thiet The leaves Chu Mai Than and takes up a new, luxurious life as a concubine of Tuan Ty.

Tuan Ty, a native of central Viet Nam, is a prosperous tax collector mandarin for commercial boats in the north. His first wife, Dao Hue', discovers that her husband is taking a concubine. Dao Hue searches for and finds her husband buying jewellery for Thiet The. A scene of jealousy follows, and Thiet The is forced away.

On her way home, Thiet The sees a glorious procession of a new laureate from the court exams and is surprised that the laureate is Chu Mai Than himself. She asks for renewal of their conjugal ties, but Chu Mai Than does not accept her back. Humiliated, Thiet The must leave. Lightening strikes her dead because the gods have no pity on unfaithful women.

This play also combines lyricism with drama and many exemplary comic scenes.

Where does the famous scene Xuy Van feigns madness" come from?

From the popuplar cheo play Kim Nham. Kim Nham is a native of Xuan Trutng District, Nam Dinh Province, an area well-known for producing outstanding scholars and talented statesmen. Kim Nham marries Xuy Van and then goes to the capital to study and become a mandarin. Left at home, Xuy Van is hired by a perfidious woman.

To    remove    herself    from    unbearable circumstances, Xuy Van pretends madness. She takes up with Tran Phuong, an illiterate but rich merchant, who soon tires of her and sends her off.

On her travels, Xuy Van meets Kim Nham again. He pities her and gives her a ball of cooked rice. When she bites into the rice ball, she finds a tael of gold. Ashamed of her infidelity to such a good man, she throws herself into the river.

This play has many lively, dramatic scenes, such as "The Perfidious Woman Laying out Her Wares," "Xuy Van Feigns Madness," and "Magician Exorcising Evil Spirits."

Which cheo artist has the most dramatic life story?

People's Artist Nguyen Thi Minh Ly. Born in 1912 in former Hai Hung Province, she was the daughter of Tritm Thinh who, together with Nguyen Dinh Nghi and Ca Tam, made a great contribution to the modernisation of cheo art in the early twentieth century.

Nguyen Thi Minh Ly demonstrated her cheo talents early. By the age of seventeen, she was famous for her roles in a number of cheo plays: Thi Kinh, the Goddess of Mercy (Quan Am Thi Kinh), Luu Binh and Du'ong Le, and The Magic Water Pot (Lo Nuoc than). Before 1945, the Lecos Company distributed recordings of her singing throughout Indochina and France. After 1954, she trained generations of Vietnamese cheo artists.

Minh Ly's own life story sounds like the script for a tragic play. After a performance she gave in 1931 ended, the audience left the theatre, but Doctoral Laureate Thao didn't want to leave. He was a high-ranking mandarin of the Hu6 Court who was on a mission to Ha Noi. The beautiful voice of Xuy Van, a character in the scene Xuy Van Feigns Madness, seemed to echo: "On the way to the Doc Market, I rest under the shadow of a banyan-tree. Suddenly, I meet you, a rice-alcohol vendor. You wear a dark brown blouse. I am attracted to you. But I am wearing a green kerchief. One side reminds me of my wife, and the other of my children."

People's Artist Nguyen Thi Minh Ly

Minh Ly's performance completely conquered Thao's heart. He begged for her hand in marriage. Her father. Rum Thinh, found that the high-ranking mandarin did not scorn inferiors and that he was deeply in love with his daughter. He agreed. Minh Ly became Thao's concubine. Thao had to return to Hud" while Minh Ly was pregnant. Several months later, Thao's servant informed Minh Ly that the mandarin's first wife - a sister of King Khai Dinh - was jealous. The wife intended to dispatch her servants to Ha Noi to poison Minh Ly before her delivery.

On hearing the news, Minh Ly and her father decided to hide in Thai Binh Province. When her son was barely one month old, Minh Ly entrusted him to her step-mother's care and retreated to a religious life in a Buddhist pagoda.

The years passed.

One scorching hot day, Pham Hoc Hai, the prefect of Thai Ninh (Thai Binh Province), was resting on a wooden bench when a village chief entered and announced that the communal pagoda was sheltering a prostitute. The prefect rushed at once to the pagoda. When the nun appeared, he was extremely surprised. She was not a stranger as he had thought but the actress Minh Ly, whom he had long admired after watching her cheo performances.

The pagoda's bonze explained: "Your Highness, the young Buddhist nun decided to follow a religious life at my pagoda to escape her destructive marriage. She is very young and deeply religious. I adopted her to help her escape her unfortunate fate. However, now the village chief wants to force the beautiful nun to marry him. So, he dispatched his patrol to harass the pagoda and accuse us."

Angry about the chief's false report, Pham Hoc Hai confiscated the chief's bronze seal and took the nun back to his office for further questioning. There, Minh ly told him all about her sad life. The prefect was sympathetic, and eventually they married.

"The next morning, with Tram Thinh's agreement, I told my secretary to take Minh Lý back to the pagoda to thank the bonze and ask for his permission for her to return to a secular life. In the afternoon, Minh Ly returned, still in her brown Buddhist garments. Seeing that, I presumed that our marriage wouldn't occur. When Tram Thinh questioned his daughter, Minh Ly gave him a letter, which he read and then handed to me. The letter said: 'I wish you a lucky and happy secular life. You should keep and use your Buddhist garments whenever you enter a Buddhist's door and you will always be welcomed.' To me, that short letter from the bonze was a great lesson in Buddhist humanity: Be kind-hearted, tolerant, and generous with everyone."

After the wedding, Minh Ly lived with her father and continued her career as an actress. Sometimes, she went to see her husband, the prefect. Their love lasted for nearly ten years, and they had children. Finally, they parted because Minh Ly was no longer prepared to be the prefect's second wife.

One night, Hai seemed to hear the echoing song of .hau Long, one of the main characters in the play Lu'u Binh and Drtang Li: "Who has ever given up drinking tarn alcohol? Who has ever given up smoking opium and 'sharing his bed?' It is only me who can give up smoking opium; And even 'sharing your bed'."

His beautiful concubine once sang like that. Where was she now? The tears brimmed over in Pham Hoc Hai's eyes.

Which cheo actress married a foreigner during the 1940?

Hoa Tam. During the 1940s, Buoi villagers often talked lovingly about her. Hoa Tam was the owner of the local tent theatre, Quang Tam Ban, erected in the Buoi Market, Ha Noi.

The troupe played to a full audience every night as well as at Sunday matinees. Audiences could watch modern as well as traditional plays, such as Twang Vien and Thi Kinh, the Goddess of Mercy. Although they knew these plays intimately, having memorised them, the audiences watched them repeatedly without ever growing bored. They were also fans of the theatre's beautiful, elegant owner, Hoa Tam. Her appearance was so youthful that they called her "Miss" even though she was already married.

Hoa Tam was born into a farming family in Kim Wing, Hung Yen Province. From the time she was little, she could sing many styles of music such as cheo (popular opera), tuong (classical opera), and cdi Wang (amateur musicals). When she was thirteen, she joined a troupe to develop her talent. A few years later, as a young woman with a very special voice, she decided to learn from experienced artists and master cheo. At that time, her friends included writers, painters, journalists, and poets. Hoa Tam's husband, Louis Aubourg, a rich and handsome man, was proud that he had defeated all his rivals, including mandarins and wealthy men.

People's artist Hoa Tam

Although Hoa Tam was admired for her beauty and talent, these traits brought her both good and bad fortune. She once said that her life was not a full moon, only a sliver of one. However, at the age of twenty-one, she was a star on the cheo stages of Ha Noi, Hai Dung, San Tay, Ha Dong, Bac Ninh, and Hung Yen. She was particularly famous for the roles of Xuy Van in the scene Xuy Van Feigns Madness in Kim Nham and of a tax officer's wife in Tuan ty Hue: These characters seemed to have been created for her. Even today, when seeing them portrayed by other actresses, people still remember Hoa Tam in the roles.

Hoa Tam was also very successful in the role of Thi Mau. Once, in a performance for a foreign audience, she was so powerful and magical in the part of the flirtatious young woman that something very strange happened. When her character became angry with the monk and threw down the drumstick (dtii), it hit the wooden tocsin (ma) and hovered, spinning above it. Hovering in the way it did, the drumstick seemed to express the young character's sexual aspirations and her fate. The stunned audience was so impressed it applauded frantically. Such a feat has never been seen since. Unfortunately, there is no photograph capturing this moment, which both foreigners and Vietnamese described for years afterwards.

Hoa Tam's roles have inspired a new generation of actors, who studied her movements, acting techniques, and singing style, even down to the way she laughed. However, many have tried to imitate her without success.

Hoa Tarn was not only an inimitable actress but also a highly generous woman.

When the capital was liberated in 1954, one of the theatre companies was in financial distress. Hoa Tam didn't hesitate to sell  her belongings to help. She also contributed to the training of new actors and passed on to young artists her experience - everything from intricate movements like opening a fan to arranging costumes and headgear.

Hoa Tam never lost her love for life. On her sick bed before she died she said: "I have a special bond with this life even though it has done me quite a few wrongs."

Who was the best known actress for the role of Xuy Van in the early 1960?

Diem Loc. Audiences familiar with cheo will recall the actress Diem Loc for her many roles but particularly for her characterisation of  Xúy Van.

Phan Thi Diem Loc was born into a family of professional cheo artists. Her mother, Tieu Thi Thuc, was an actress who performed traditional dances and songs. Ms. Thuc spent her spare time practising difficult tunes such as "Lan Tham" and "Cach Cu" in her poignant voice. At sixteen, Tieu Thi Thuc was forced into an arranged marriage, but she left her cheo group in Thai Binh Province and wandered to Ha Noi, then later to Son Tay. There, she fell ill, but a rich man who admired her talent cared for her. She married him and had two sons and a daughter, Diem Loc.

As a very young child, Diem Loc followed her mother to festivals. In 1956, when she was eighteen, the Co Phong Group in Son Tay Province recruited her. Later, Diem Lee moved to the Viet Nam Cheo Theatre Company, where she played the principal characters in numerous cheo plays, both classical and modern: Thi Mau in Thi Kinh, the Goddess of Mercy (Quan Am Thi Chau Long in Luu Binh and Duong LJ, Miss Ba Dep (Beautiful Ba) in The Magic Water Pot (Lo Nuoc than), Duong Van Nga in Queen Mother Along Van Nga (Thai Hau Duong Van Nga), Tam in Tam and Cam, Miss Truc in The Tra Khuc River (Song Tra khuc), and the guerrilla in The Way Back to the Front (Duong ve tran dia).

People's artist Diem Loc in the role of Xuy Van feigning madness

Diem Loc especially succeeded in the role of Xuy Van feigning madness. This scene made her famous throughout Viet Nam beginning with the early 1960s. Audiences were thrilled when listening to her singing; some people watched the play only for this scene.

The character Xuy Van requires special skills and techniques. Xuy Van stridently opposes polygamy yet must carry a tray of areca nut and betel as offerings to ask for another girl's hand for her husband. Then, she meets and falls in love with Tran Phuong, a playboy. merchant. She pretends to be mad to escape from her parents-in-law and follows Tran Phuong, who soon abandons her. Ashamed, Xuy Van throws herself into a river. To succeed in the performance, the artist must have mastered cheo airs including "Loi Lo" which requires a clear soprano voice for resonance.

Diem Loc had many opportunities to learn cheo skills from master-artists, especially from Vinh Phuc Province's late master, Kieu Trong Doa, whowas famous for his female roles. In harsh practice sessions, she mastered difficult cheo techniques, particularly control of her facial muscles to stare, glance, smile, and laugh as a madwoman. She once spent three whole days laughing to practise for the part, thus enabling her to create an impressive Xuy Van.

At the age of sixty-four, Diem Loc's passion for cheo remains unchanged. As a lecturer on cheo at the University of Theatre and Cinematography, she is training future generations of cheo artists. 

Diem Loc ponders how best to train each new student, especially those able to perform Xuy Van.

Despite her busy schedule, Diem Loc tries to attend all sessions of the Club of Elderly Cheo Artists. She hopes young cheo artists will devote their lives to this art like the elderly masters, who still practise and perform.

Who represent the four recent generations of cheo actresses in the role of Thi Mau?

Eminent Artist Thanh Tram and the young actresses, Van Quyen, An Chinh, and Hoai Thu. On an early spring day in 2002, they assembled for cheo fans.

During her career, Thanh Tram played Thi Mau thousands of times, skilfully conveying the character's aspiration for love-and a free life. At the age of thirty-two, she received the great honour of perfqrming Thi Mau in India for the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Her acting deeply impressed the Indian audience. Although for many years Thanh Tram's admirers have not 'seen her on stage performing the familiar dance of Thi Mau in her colourful costumes, they still hold her lively interpretation of this character fresh in their memories. Now, Thanh Tram spends most of her time teaching young artists.

Eminent Artist Thanh Tram

Except for Thanh Tram, each of the other assembled actresses performed famous scenes featuring Thi Mau: Thi Mau at the Pagoda (Thi Mau len chtia) and Thi Mau and Her Servant NO (Thi Mau vai anh NO). It was difficult to determine the best performance. However, Van Quyen's ten years of experience (which include winning the Young Talent title at the 1991 National Stage Festival) accounted for the maturity of her portrayal.

Eminent Artist Van Quyen

An Chinh seemed to be better suited to play the role Thi Kinh, who is Thi Mau's opposite. However, she acted skilfully and earned the honour of Young Talent. After finishing the scene in which Thi Mau goes to the pagoda to flirt with the monk, An Chinh changed into a fashionable black dress. Seeing her out of costume, it was hard to believe that she had just been Thi Mau, a classical character of the cheo stage.

Of    those performing,  Hoai Thu, was the youngest to succeed as Thi Mau. Born in Thai Binh, a cradle of cheo art, Hoai, Thu has had a passion for cheo since she was very young. In 2001, just one year into her career, Hoai Thu won the gold medal at the Traditional Stage Festival in her role as Thi Mau. Using the traditional dance structure, she developed a new style with a faster tempo. With her dimpled cheeks, the young Thi Mau-Hoai Thu quickly impresses an audience.

Artist Hoai Thu

These young artists, who mesmerised spectators as Thi Mau, are only some of the faces of the cheo stage. One day they, too, will pass their mantle to a new generation and keep the image of Thi Mau alive.

How did Thanh Hoai become a professional cheo actress?

Actress Thanh Hoai of the Viet Nam cheo Theatre Company is a well-known name on the cheo stage. She has performed for over thirty years and often plays good characters such as the faithful fairy, Giang Huang, and the hardworking wife, Chau Long. She says of these roles, "Perhaps my personality is not suitable for cruel, sharp-tongued, or shrewish ladies, even though I have been trained to play both good and evil characters."

Actress Thanh Hoai was born in Thai Binh Province, one of the four most famous cheo areas in Viet Nam. However, none of her family members is a professional cheo singer. She became a professional by accident. One day while she was cutting grass and grazing a buffalo by the Lilac River, she heard a loudspeaker announcing tryouts for the People's Central Cheo Troupe (present-day Viet Nam Cheo Theatre Company). She abandoned the buffalo and her basket of grass and ran five kilometres to the district town to participate in the contest. No one expected the shy little girl who had picked up a few cheo tunes from village performances to win the examiners' hearts. She even lisped the letters "1" and "n." However, her soft, sweet voice conquered the examiners as soon as she began to sing.

Thanh Hoai went with the troupe to its headquarters in Ha NOi and trained there for three years, from 1965 to 1968. After that, she travelled and performed for soldiers and young volunteers on the war front.

Thanh Hoai has worked tirelessly for decades. In recent years, she performed in Paris, London, and Brussels. She has won ten medals from regional, national, and international contests. Her most impressive and unexpected achievement was the gold medal' at the 1990 National Professional Theatre Contest held in Thai Binh Province. The lead actress suddenly fell ill; Thanh Hoai performed impressively as an understudy.

Her personal life is much easier now than in the 1980s. Back then, she grew vegetables, raised pigs, and took care of her mother, mother-in-law, and young children while her husband travelled. At the same time, she performed and studied new roles. Since her two daughters are now married, she has more time for herself. Her love for cheo has grown even stronger. Although she is fifty years old, her voice is still sweet, crystalline, and enthusiastic. She also sings other forms of traditional music such as ca tru, chau van, xam, and quan ho.

Her other activities are singing, recording, and teaching cheo at art schools. She appears at the Voice of Viet Nam recording studio so often the staff members call her "Veteran General." They have known her since her fee was one or 1.5 hao (one-tenth of a (long) for a recorded song, enough to buy two ice creams.

After years as a lead actress, Thanh Hoai now plays supporting characters, leaving the central stage for younger performers. She says, "I am old now. Let the young generation take up the challenge. They are very talented."

What has been Tao Mat's contribution to the development of cheo in modern times?

Tao Mat (the stage name of Nguye'n Dang Thuc) was born into a poor peasant family in Thach That District, Ha Tay Province, forty-five kilometres  from Ha Noi. After the 1945 August Revolution, he joined the army and took part in the resistance. At that time, he never thought he would become a professional writer.

Tao Mat

In 1957, Tao Mat watched a traditional cheo play, Thi Kinh, the Goddess of Mercy, and immediately fell in love with this theatrical art form. He later followed the Ha Noi cheo Company to watch its rehearsals and performances and started learning cheo songs and dances. After a short time of practice, Tao Mat mastered a number of cheo airs and was determined to pursue the cheo stage.

Quite separately, he studied Chinese and Win characters by himself and became accomplished in history, philosophy, and other arts. From the 1960s on, he was an avant-garde scriptwriter who drew stories from modern life to create cheo plays that were lauded at national stage festivals.

His play A Song to Preserve the Nation (Bai ca giu nuoc) in three volumes about the  Dynasty (eleventh to thirteenth centuries) produced an audience stir during the 1980s because of its modern social views. 

A scene of the play "A Song to Preserve the Nation"

The play criticises conservative forces impeding social reforms and supports women holding power. The character He Gia (Old Buffoon) impressed the audience with his optimism and patience before his death.

After Tao Mat died in 1993, Bai ca giư nuoc received a gold medal at a festival held in the ancient capital of Hoa La (Ninh Binh Province). The  Government awarded Tao Mat the Ho Chi Minh Prize in Literature and Arts for his achievements and contributions to cheo.

Which researcher trained himself in the art of cheo?

Ha Van Cau. He taught himself French and Chinese scripts and is now fluent in both. He is particularly well known as a cheo researcher. For several decades, he has lectured on cheo at the Ha Noi-based University of Theatre and Cinematography.

He has served as an editor for entries about theatre in the Viet Nam Encyclopaedia and the Ha Noi Encyclopaedia. His research papers have been printed in numerous books, including Introduction to Cheo Writing (1969), Reciting Poems and Playing Cheo (1972), A Collection of Cheo Comedies (1972), Some Issues with Cheo Scripts (1979), and The Techniques of Cheo Performing (2000). Many of  these books have won prizes from the Vi0 Nam Folk Art Association.

Overseas scholars interested in cheo consult his research papers and praise his works, which have been translated into German, French, Hungarian, and Japanese.

At an international conference on theatre held in Germany in 1978, his report, "Contributions to Studies of the Use of Brecht as Interruptive Effects on Oriental Theatre," drew broad attention from conference participants. Subsequently, the report appeared in numerous foreign newspapers.

He has written nearly thirty traditional opera scripts; most are cheo. His scripts, The Three Sisters' Restaurant (Quan Ba Co) and Le Quy Don (the name of a celebrated Vietnamese scholar), won the first and second prizes respectively from the Viet Nam Association of Theatrical Artists in 1993.

Asked about his recipe for success, he said, smiling, "When I was young, a senior poet warned me that I would not be able to write anything readable. His warning served as a stimulant to my later effort." He also fondly recalls his former teacher, Long Chuong, who helped him with his career. In this Cau has turned out to be a Confucian scholar, for Confucians remember the famous saying about respect for teaches: "One word is a teacher; half a word is a teacher."

What is the origin of cheo music?

In Viet Nam's distant past, song and dance ceremonies honoured deities with special melodies describing their distinguished deeds. Vietnamese have handed these performances, from the simplest to the most sophisticated, down from generation to generation. Each generation has added innovative characteristics. Cheo san dinh, a popular cheo art form performed at village communal houses, springs from these spiritual and secular ceremonies. Its inherited music is rich and diverse.

The classical cheo theatrical performance of today, including its specialised music, has undergone many changes over the long course of Vietnamese history. A majority of the nearly 200 original cheo melodies originates from folksongs of northern and central Viet Nam.

How should cheo songs be sung?

Actors and actresses performing cheo — whether as central characters, heroes, heroines, buffoons, or villains (often a person who counters society's moral standards, not necessarily one who does evil) - must sing clearly to show their characters' unique physical characteristics. 

They must enunciate both the tones and words. Each feeling - whether happy and joyful or sad and miserable - is expressed with a certain unique nuance of voice: metal voice (kim), earth voice (tho'), copper voice (dung), and so on. These sung sounds give rise to sophisticated onomatopoeic associations that audiences treasure.