Viet Nam News
HA NOI — The Viet Nam Youth Theatre will perform a series of plays at the Luu Quang Vu’s Plays Festival from August 4 to September 1 in Ha Noi.
The festival will feature Loi Noi Doi Cuoi Cung (The Last Lying Words), Hoa Cuc Xanh Tren Dam Lay (Green Daisy on Marsh), Ai La Thu Pham (Who is the Culprit) and Loi The Thu 9 (The Ninth Oath).
The festival commemorates the 30th anniversary of the death of playwright Luu Quang Vu, who is regarded as an influential author in the country’s theatrical renewal process.
"The Last Lying Words is one of the most successful plays at the Youth Theatre," said Truong Nhuan, the theatre’s former director.
"The play is Vu’s message about the truth against the lie. It awakes people to social evils such as achievement-addiction, corruption and authoritarian behaviour by local officials."
The play was written based on Vietnamese folk tales and features a love triangle where deceit and music are the order of the day, with country girl Lua tricked by deceitful boy Cuoi.
The play debuted in 1986, directed by People’s Artist Pham Thi Thanh. During her career she staged more than 200 plays, including 25 by Vu. "Vu always gave me his new works to read," said Thanh.
The play was named Cuoi, Bom and Lua at first. After Thanh read the script she suggested changing to The Last Lying Words to give the name a broader meaning.
"The plays by Vu reflect the darker side of society. But he always highlighted human dignity and he always believed in the truth, the fair and the ideal," Thanh said.
Vu was born in the northern province of Phu Tho, although his father, playwright Luu Quang Thuan, came from the central province of Quang Nam.
Vu served as a soldier in the anti-American War from 1965-70, when his poems began to gain recognition. But it was in the 1980s that he became a celebrated poet, writing about life in the post-war period and during the process of national renewal in the late 1980s.
His dramas, short stories and poems were charactised by their gritty realism and great humanity. He wrote some 50 dramas, most of which criticise the darker side of society, especially corruption and authoritarian behaviour. Many of them earned high literary acclaim.
He was married to fellow poet Xuan Quynh, whose poem Song (Wave) became standard reading material in secondary schools. The couple died in a car crash in 1988 when travelling from Hai Phong city back to their home in Ha Noi. Their 12-year-old son was also killed in the accident.
The country’s highest awards, the Ho Chi Minh Prize in art and literature, were posthumously given to Vu in 2000 and Quynh in 2017.
The festival will be held at the Youth Theatre, 11 Ngo Thi Nham Street. — VNS