Kindness and beauty take center stage at the Festival national de chèo | Culture-Sports

Hà Nam (VNA) – The National Chèo Festival, which is the form of sung theater typical of the Red River Delta, took place from October 12 to 28 in Phu Ly, capital of Hà Nam province. The 27 plays presented at the festival were all tributes to truth, goodness and beauty. They have given chèo lovers new hope as to the vitality of this traditional art.

The festival brought together some 1,500 actors and artists from 16 professional troupes. The jury noticed several pieces for their creativity and for their force of attraction and emotion on the public. But all the pieces were remarkable in that they gave clear and topical messages, observes Trân Tri Trac, the president of the jury.

“The 27 pieces presented at the festival were all tributes to truth, goodness and beauty. The inventiveness of the participants, who nevertheless took care to respect the fundamental values ​​of the chèo, had the effect of transcending the spectators and encouraging them to be more honest, more honest and more devoted to the Fatherland”, he notes. .

Most of the plays were characterized by a lyrical style, a happy ending, a multitude of twists, and a continuous alternation between realism and symbolism.

The prize for the best play was awarded to “Terre et mer” by the Thanh Hoa Traditional Arts Theater. The play takes place in two distinct spaces, where two different fights take place, that of the soldiers defending the Truong Sa archipelago and that of their families who must overcome the difficulties of daily life and sometimes, of loneliness. This same play also won the prize for best screenplay for its author, who himself was a soldier in the navy in Truong Sa.

Six other plays won a gold medal, all of which dealt with themes related to history or folklore. For the Vice-Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ta Quang Dông, this festival was a great success.

“The 2022 National Chèo Festival was held in accordance with Party resolutions on the recovery and development of Vietnamese culture. It was an opportunity for state management bodies and professional associations to reflect on the directions to be taken to develop the performing arts in general and the chèo in particular. We are happy to see that the flame of passion still burns in the hearts of the participating artists, which reinforces our conviction that the chèo will always live,” he says.

In October 2021, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism began to develop the file that it will submit to UNESCO with a view to registering the chèo as a world cultural heritage site. – VOV/VNA