Meritorious Artist and cải lương star Quế Trân of HCM City will perform in new versions of famous plays Chuyện Tình Khâu Vai (Love Story in Khâu Vai Market) and Thầy Ba Đợi  (Teacher Ba Đợi), both staged by the Việt Nam Cải Lương Theatre in Hà Nội in July. — Photo courtesy of the producer

Thu Anh 

HCM CITY — Meritorious Artist-cải lương star Quế Trân and her colleagues of HCM City will perform in two famous plays staged by the Việt Nam Cải Lương Theatre in Hà Nội. 

The artists will play leading roles in Chuyện Tình Khâu Vai (Love Story in Khâu Vai Market) and Thầy Ba Đợi (Artist Ba Đợi), both featuring Vietnamese culture and lifestyle.

Trân will play Út, an ethnic minority woman, in Chuyện Tình Khâu Vai, a production featuring the culture of ethnic minority people living in Hà Giang Province. 

The play depicts the love between Út and her boyfriend, Ba, who belong to the different ethnic groups of Nùng and Giày. 

The couple meets and falls in love at Khâu Vai Market, a famous cultural and tourist destination in Mèo Vạc District. Their love faces challenges, so they escape from their village to live together. 

Mèo Vạc Market is a love market attracting young people who have a chance to talk for one night. It opens every year on March 27 on the lunar calendar. 

Trân’s colleagues, Meritorious Artist Phượng Loan, Lê Tứ and Võ Minh Lâm, will also perform in the play. 

“Artists of the Việt Nam Cải Lương Theatre offer cải lương in the style of the North. I’m happy to introduce the art in a southern style for audiences in Hà Nội,” said Trân in an interview with Người Lao Động (Labourer) newspaper before her trip to Hà Nội. 

“My colleagues and I will offer true cải lương, a traditional genre of southern theatre which began in the early 1920s in the Cửu Long (Mekong) River Delta region.” 

“We will try our best to bring the art closer to Hanoians,” added Trân, who has more than 20 years of experience in theatre. 

Chuyện Tình Khâu Vai was first staged in 2014, featuring 70 actors and musicians from the Việt Nam Cải Lương Theatre. 

The play was restaged by artists of the HCM City-based Trần Hữu Trang Cải Lương Theatre last year. Trân was chosen to perform the leading role, Út. 

“I asked my actors, who were all born and live in the south, to visit Hà Giang, a northern moutainous province, to learn about the land and its culture and people. This helped to breathe life into the play,” said the play’s director Triệu Trung Kiên. 

In his new version of Chuyện Tình Khâu Vai to be staged in Hà Nội in July, Kiên decided to invite Trân to play a role because he wants to “refresh the play”, said the director. 

“I hope Trân’s performance will leave a new impression on audiences in Hà Nội.”  

Actress Quế Trân has more than 20 years in cải lương. She has performed in hundreds of plays, videos and TV shows. — Photo courtesy of the Trẩn Hưu Trang Cải Luơng Theatre

 According to Kiên, his other play, Thầy Ba Đợi (Teacher Ba Đợi), will also be staged in a new version by Trân and actors of the Việt Nam Cải Lương Theatre. 

The play is written by Kiên and Hoàng Song Việt from the Cải Lương Đại Việt Troupe, a private theatre which opened in HCM City last year.

Thầy Ba Đợi portrays the career of famous musician Nguyễn Quang Đại, a guru of cải lương who helped develop tài tử music, a genre of traditional music and cải lương in the South. 

The play focuses on the time Đại moved from his birthplace, Huế City, to Sài Gòn (now HCM City) to teach tài tử, and the musician’s contributions in promoting Huế royal music and cải lương.

Chuyện Tình Khâu Vai and Thầy Ba Đợi will be staged at 8pm on July 11 and 12 at the Hà Nội Opera House, 1 Tràng Tiền Street, Hoàn Kiếm District. — VNS