A poster for Nàng Xê Đa (Xê Đa), a cải lương (reformed opera) play staged by actors of the Trần Hữu Trang Cải Lương Theatre in HCM City. (Photo courtesy of the theatre)

Thu Anh 

HCM CITY— Meritorious Artist and cải lương star Phượng Loan and her colleagues from the HCM City-based Trần Hữu Trang Cải Lương Theatre, one of the region’s leading traditional art troupes, will stage a famous play from the 1980s by the late playwright and poet Lưu Quang Vũ of Hà Nội. 

Loan plays Xê Đa, a beautiful and courageous woman, in Nàng Xê Đa, a tragedy about love, jealousy and betrayal.  

The play depicts the love between Xê Đa and her husband, Prince Pơliem, who destroys his love and marriage with his extreme jealousy. 

Loan’s colleagues, Meritorious Artist Lê Hồng Thắm and Cao Thúy Vi, also perform as young Xê Đa.  

Young actor Võ Minh Lâm plays Prince Pơliem. 

Veteran and young actors of HCM City’s Trần Hữu Trang Cải Lương Theatre will perform in the new version of the famous play Nàng Xê Đa (Xê Đa), a production about love and betrayal. Performances will be held every night during the Tết (Lunar New Year) holiday which begins on February 12. (Photo courtesy of the 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, scriptwriter Vũ, to become a phenomenon in the industry after its release in Hà Nội in 1982. Vũ worked with his father, author Lưu Quang Thuận, to write the play.

Vũ was born in 1948 in the northern province of Phú Thọ. At the age of 20, his first poems were co-printed with famous poet Bằng Việt. 

Vũ composed 53 short and long plays, hundreds of poems, short stories, and articles about stage art. His dramatic plays include Sống Mãi Tuổi 17 (Forever 17), Hồn Trương Ba, Da Hàng Thịt (Trương Ba’s Soul, Butcher’s Body) and Lời Thề Thứ 9 (The Ninth Pledge).

His works are considered timeless. His plays have been adapted for a range of art forms, including chèo, cải lương (reformed opera), water puppetry and drama. 

He was awarded the Hồ Chí Minh Prize, one of the most prestigious prizes in art and literature in Việt Nam, for his play Lời Thề Thứ 9 in 2000.

In 1982, Nàng Xê Đa was rewritten for cải lương by Hà Vân of HCM City. Two years later, the play was first staged in a cải lương (reformed opera) version in HCM City, featuring young star Thanh Vi of Trần Hữu Trang Cải Lương Theatre. The play had 1,800 performances in the city and southern provinces. 

“In my cải lương version in 2021, Nàng Xê Đa will introduce the art in both old and new styles,” said the play’s director Hoa Hạ, who has worked in theatre for 25 years. 

“Our actors 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, with modern technicques of performance.” 

“We will try our best to introduce the art closer to young people,” Hạ said in an interview with Người Lao Động (Labourer) newspaper before the premiere on Saturday. 

Hạ hired young talents such as Lâm, Quốc Thanh and Cẩm Ngọc because he wanted to “refresh the play".

“Our new shows will target young audiences. We want to encourage audiences to learn more about Vietnamese history and culture through theatre,” said the theatre’s director Phan Quốc Kiệt. “We began to hire staff and investment for these special shows last year.” 

Nàng Xê Đa will debut at 8pm on January 30 at Bến Thành Theatre in District 1. It will be performed every night during the Tết (Lunar New Year) holiday, which begins on February 12.—VNS