Actress Bình Tinh, winner of the Chuông Vàng Vọng Cổ (Golden Bell) Awards 2016, a national cải lương contest presented annually by HCM City Television. Photo courtesy of Huỳnh Long Troupe

 HCM CITY Artists from traditional cải lương (reformed opera) troupes in HCM City will offer new shows this weekend to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of cải lương.

The commemoration begins on September 28 or the twelfth day of the eighth lunar month. 

The Huỳnh Long Troupe in Bình Thạnh District will stage Tân Anh Hùng Náo (The Victory of a Young Hero), a historical production directed by veteran female artist Bạch Mai, the troupe’s owner, on Sunday night (September 27).

The event will star talented artists Bình Tinh, Thái Vinh and Huyền Trâm, graduates of HCM City University of Theatre & Cinematography.

“Our play features a very old story, but will be staged in a new style of cải lương, a 100-year-old genre of traditional theatre in the south," said actress Tinh, winner of the Chuông Vàng Vọng Cổ (Golden Bell) Awards 2016, a national cải lương contest presented annually by HCM City Television.

Tinh and her colleagues will perform vọng cổ (nostalgic tunes), cải lương and tuồng (classical drama).

The Vũ Luân Entertainment Centre in District 6 will offer a special show on Saturday (September 26), featuring popular extracts from historical plays written by Trần Hữu Trang, Hà Triều and Hoa Phượng, well known as cải lương gurus. 

The show will feature cải lương stars such as Meritorious Artist Vũ Linh, Kim Tử Long, Tô Châu and Vũ Luân, the theatre’s owner.

Performance highlights will be staged by actor Linh, who was famous in the 1980s and 90s and has more than 50 years of experience in the art.

The Phụng Hoàng Troupe in District 10 will organise a worship ceremony at 7pm on Saturday at Vườn Lài Theatre on Vĩnh Viễn Street.

The event's theme, Cống Hiến (Devotion), is meant to honour and encourage theatre artists who have devoted their lives to preserving and developing the art. 

Young artists will be featured. More than 200 guests, mostly elderly artists, have been invited to attend the show.

Dozens of cải lương (reformed opera) and artists from traditional troupes in HCM City will stage performances to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of cải lương. The event begins on September 28 or August 12 of the lunar calendar.  Photo courtesy of Huỳnh Long Troupe

A group of actors in the city and neighbouring provinces will visit the Artists' Pagoda in Gò Vấp District to offer free performances every night during the week of the event.  

Following tradition, the artists will show their deep respect for late actress Phùng Há, a great symbol of cải lương and also founder of the pagoda.

Há spent her savings to build the Artists' Pagoda in 1958. It serves as a place for 1,000 theatre performers who were once stars on the stage but now need financial support. VNS