When the American director played the role of Chi Pheo

Scene from the radio play Chi Pheo

The character Chi Pheo is portrayed by American director Aaron Toronto. Chi Pheo is a feudal character that Vietnamese people sometimes cannot feel or fully portray, so how would an American director portray him?

Aaron was surprised to be invited.

After watching the play, an audience member asked director Phuc An in doubt whether he would invite Aaron Toronto to play Chi Pheo while he was drunk like Chi. Hearing that, Aaron Toronto humorously said he wondered the same thing.

Director Vu Phuc An shared that the radio drama Chi Pheo (developed from the script of Nam Cao's work) will start in October 2024. Initially, the role of Chi Pheo will be given to a young actor from the South.

After finishing the rehearsal, the actor was unexpectedly drafted for military service. The director was panicked and had to find a replacement.

He suddenly remembered Aaron Toronto because he had worked on several projects with the director of the movie "Brilliant Night". At first, Aaron thought Phuc An asked him to help him find an actor, but unexpectedly, he was offered the main role.

"It's true that inviting Aaron Toronto to play this role is a bit risky, but my director's intuition tells me he can do it," Phuc An said.

Sharing about this risk, Aaron Toronto said he had the opportunity to be exposed to Vietnamese culture for nearly 30 years. When he accepted the offer, he continuously learned about the radio drama genre, the characters, and the works.

"I received enthusiastic help from the director and other actors in the play. I was attracted by the very humane original work, teaching people to sympathize and see into each person's inner self. I saw humanity in Chí Phèo" - Aaron Toronto confided.

Coming to see the show, director Tuong Phuong said that in the 1960s when he was in his hometown, he used to listen to radio dramas, which were a lively form of entertainment before the advent of television.

Now he is moved because the crew revived his beautiful past. With Aaron Toronto, he talked and listened to him confide about Vietnamese culture long before he came to live in Ho Chi Minh City, he was very surprised by the American director's feelings for Vietnam.

"I was more surprised, Aaron gave me the feeling of sitting in front of the radio listening and imagining the character Chi Pheo" - director Tuong Phuong praised.

Aaron Toronto (right) plays the character Chi Pheo with Hong Van as Thi No - Photo: L.DOAN

Listen to the audio story

Director Phuc An said that everything related to sound is used to convey the story including the setting, characters, and world within it.

Because the emphasis is on sound, other visual elements are just supplementary. "Sound stimulates the imagination more, allowing each person to feel and visualize the story in their own way," Phuc An said.

Bringing radio drama to the stage is also a process where the crew explores to find new ways of expression.

For each situation from the play, the director gives the actors exercises on how to handle it using only sound. When the actors give their answers, the crew discusses and finds the best solution.

All the actors don't dress up in character, but wear suits, stand in front of the microphone, read the script and dialogue. The sound, noise, and music are all performed live in front of the audience.

The music is performed by artists Dinh Linh and Minh Loan with the sounds of the zither, flute, percussion instruments, etc., bringing the atmosphere of the North from the Cheo melodies to the nursery rhymes.

The sound and noise part was performed by FPT University students for the first time on stage. With this method, the sound and noise not only complemented the play but also made the audience excited when witnessing how the artists created the sound of wind, flowing water, footsteps, etc.

With the important role in Chí Phèo, Aaron Toronto was serious when he memorized all the lines without holding the script. However, if the requirements were higher, viewers would still expect him to have more nuances in his voice to make the character Chí Phèo deeper, in some places his pronunciation is still not very clear.

Radio dramas have another difficulty compared to a normal play: the actors are not put into the situation, interacting with their co-stars, but almost handling things on their own. So if they are not imbued with the character's psychology enough, there will be some situations where they fall into reading the lines.

In addition to Aaron Toronto, the radio drama Chi Pheo also features artists Huy Thuc, Cam Linh, Quoc Viet, and Hong Van.

There are still some areas that need to be improved, but with serious investment, Chi Pheo promises to be a product that can serve students, considered as a new form of drama to convey meaningful literary works to viewers.

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LINH DOAN

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/khi-dao-dien-nguoi-my-vao-vai-chi-pheo-20250328092100046.htm