REACHING THE YOUTH: Young talent Võ Minh Lâm (left) has worked to introduce the South’s 100-year-old cải lương (reformed opera) on YouTube. Photo courtesy of Đại Việt Cải Lương Theatre.

By Thu Anh

HCM CITY Young artist Võ Minh Lâm and his staff are working to release Nàng Xê Đa (The Tale of Sita), a famous play of cải lương (reformed opera) from the 1980s, on YouTube.

The work features a tragedy about love, jealousy and betrayal.

It depicts the love between Sita, a beautiful and courageous woman, and her husband, Prince Poliam, who destroys his love and marriage with his extreme jealousy.

Lâm has worked with Meritorious Artist and theatre director Hoa Hạ to renew Nàng Xê Đa to meet the taste of young viewers on YouTube.

“In our new version on YouTube, Nàng Xê Đa will include four chapters featuring cải lương in a new style combined with modern concepts in structure, conversation and directing style,” said the play’s producer Lâm, who also plays Prince Poliam.

Lâm invited cải lương stars from the private Đại Việt Cải Lương Theatre to perform lead roles.

These artists will offer true cải lương, a traditional genre of southern theatre which began in the early 1920s in the Mekong River Delta region, with modern techniques of performance.

“Through YouTube, we hope to bring cải lương closer to young people,” Lâm said in an interview with local media.

Lâm began his career in Cần Thơ Province when he was 15 years old in 2004.

He won the Chuông Vàng (Golden Bell) award in 2006, a national cải lương singing contest organised annually by HCM City Television.

He has played leading roles in 12 dramas and performed in many TV shows and videos featuring vọng cổ (nostalgic tunes), cải lương and tuồng or hát bội (classical drama), traditional theatre genres from the southern and central regions.

NEW PLAY: Artists of HCM City’s private Đại Việt Cải Lương Theatre will perform and release Nàng Xê Đa (The Tale of Sita), a cải lương (reformed opera) production about love and betrayal, on YouTube. Photo courtesy of Đại Việt Cải Lương Theatre.

The original version of Nàng Xê Đa was written for chèo (traditional opera), a form of Vietnamese theatre in the North.

The play helped its creator, late scriptwriter and poet Lưu Quang Vũ, to become a phenomenon in the industry after its release in Hà Nội in 1982.

Vũ composed 53 short and long plays, hundreds of poems, short stories, and articles about stage art. His dramatic plays, including Nàng Xê Đa, are considered timeless. His works have been adapted for a range of art forms, including chèo, cải lương, water puppetry and drama.

Nàng Xê Đa was rewritten for cải lương by Thể Hà Vân of HCM City. In 1984, it was first staged by artists of the State-owned Trần Hữu Trang Cải Lương Theatre in HCM City. It has had nearly 2,000 performances in the city and southern provinces.

The play was restaged by actor Lâm and his colleagues from Đại Việt Cải Lương Theatre in 2021. It left a very strong impression on theatre critics and audiences.

It is scheduled to be released on Lâm’s YouTube channel, Võ Minh Lâm Official, in late August. The channel has 92,000 subscribers. VNS