Adapting The Tale of Kieu into a blockbuster for Southern theater

(Fatherland) - Idecaf Drama Theater has just released a drama inspired by the Tale of Kieu by the great poet Nguyen Du. The project is invested in a large scale, promising many surprises with a cast of famous actors: Hong Anh, Thanh Thuy, Hoang Trinh, Meritorious Artist My Duyen, Tuyen Map, Dinh Toan, Meritorious Artist Dai Nghia, along with the special participation of artist - Meritorious Teacher Dieu Duc.

Director and scriptwriter Quang Thao said: "The Tale of Kieu is a wonderful work, with so much material to exploit, about literature as well as about life and people. The difficulty here is that The Tale of Kieu is too familiar to Vietnamese people, even when they were still in school and is also not unfamiliar to seniors in academic fields. Therefore, I chose my own path for my script, which is to be inspired by The Tale of Kieu itself to have new creations. I myself also had to spend a lot of effort and time to convince the Idecaf leadership to implement this large-scale artistic project."

Under the shadow of a beauty is considered a large-scale drama project of the drama stage.

According to Quang Thao, the script Under the beauty's shadow has been adapted with new developments, incorporating modern humanistic elements. With a modern staging style, Under the beauty's shadow will be a different way of telling about Kieu and the names that seem so familiar. In addition, there are some fictional characters and events that are not in the original work.

In parallel, Chau Van and Ngam Kieu are artistic materials with strong Vietnamese characteristics used, adding to the national soul of the play. The impressive number of 14 acts in the play also makes experts and audiences look forward to the day they can enjoy it with their own eyes, to see which artistic techniques will be applied by director Quang Thao.

"Everything will change. I am now not just Quang Thao of children's theater. The experiences and struggles on all the theater stages in Ho Chi Minh City, especially at Idecaf, have given me a lot of maturity in art as well as artistic life. I am confident with the production team of Under the shadow of a beauty of Idecaf, confident with my colleagues and the talented cast and artists that Idecaf has and is collaborating with. I hope and believe that we will create a very different, very new and surprising Kieu, an artistic feast offered to the public by a new Idecaf" - director Quang Thao shared.

Cast of Under the Beauty's Shadow

The cast and artists participating in Under the beauty's shadow really came together as fate and destiny. For example, the case of Meritorious Artist My Duyen and Hong Anh. The two female artists both come from the art of dance, and became famous from feature films during the golden age of "State" cinema. The two met and worked together on the catwalk of the Duyen Dang Viet Nam program, breaking the mold in the bikini drama (Two-piece Killer) which was once a hit, then later on in TV drama projects (Apple Blossom) or a hundred-billion-dollar movie (Shang Nam Ruc Ro) and of course many plays at the Idecaf Drama Theater.

According to the first revelations of the crew, in Under the shadow of a beauty , Hong Anh will play the role of Thuy Kieu and My Duyen will transform into Dam Tien - a character considered a ghost of a previous life, a mirror of Kieu's fate in the original work. Besides Hong Anh and Meritorious Artist My Duyen, the return to drama also brings back many memories with artists Thanh Thuy, Hoang Trinh and Meritorious Artist Dai Nghia, when these famous artists once appeared together in the ancient play The Secret of Le Chi Garden .

In parallel, the play also recorded the harmonious combination of artistic friends, the "tsunami" couple Quang Thao - Dinh Toan. According to director Quang Thao, in addition to taking on the role of the villain Ho Ton Hien, Dinh Toan also supported him a lot in staging the big scenes and choreographing dances for his fellow performers.

"There will be more than 200 ancient costumes designed and produced exclusively for Under the Beauty's Shadow . Also according to the wishes of director Quang Thao, we invited musician Van Tu Quy to take on the role of music director for the project. It has been a long time since Tien Nga that Idecaf has "played big", investing on a large scale in all aspects. All for one final wish: a great drama, once again affirming the name of the theater" - Mr. Huynh Anh Tuan - Director of Thai Duong Stage - Arts Company Limited, the managing unit of Idecaf Drama Theater, did not hide his ambition for a drama stage in the "new era".

There will be more than 200 costumes invested specifically for the play.

"We have a wish that when talking about Idecaf, the public and experts will not only mention old plays that have been renewed, or new plays that continue from old successes, even though those are the things that made Idecaf famous at one time. What Idecaf aims for is to have more valuable dramatic works to give to the audience. Duc Thuong Cong Ta Quan Le Van Duyet is considered the first brick to lay the foundation to consolidate the theater's drama section. As for Under the shadow of a beauty , we believe that this will be a play that creates a solid framework for the Idecaf art house" - Mr. Huynh Anh Tuan shared.

According to Mr. Huynh Anh Tuan, Under the shadow of a beauty will be one of the projects that Idecaf will invest a lot of human and financial resources in the near future. Although the total investment has not been disclosed, looking at the number of actors up to more than 50 people, including many famous names in Southern drama, we can also see the scale and determination of the producer to persevere with this stage.

The play will be reviewed in November and performed for the public who love Saigon drama starting from December 2024 at Ben Thanh Theater./.

Source: https://toquoc.vn/chuyen-the-truyen-kieu-thanh-bom-tan-san-khau-kich-phia-nam-20241101164854464.htm