The annual National Classic Drama (Tuong ) and Traditional Folk Opera Contest with a Tuong performance: Living Statues is taking place at Da Nang's Nguyen Hien Dinh Theatre from 20-29 August.

A performance at ​Nguyen Hien Dinh Theatre (Photo: VNA)

The 90-minute performance, by Nguyen Sy Chuc and Director Dang Ba Tai, featured an old story of immortal actistes of the Liberated Army’s arts troupe during the fiercest fighting during the resistance war against the US in 1968.

It also depicted lives of actistes who had contributed their performances and died for the country’s reunification.

The performance used traditional arts and costumes to describe a modern story.

Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Vuong Duy Bien said the contest is an opportunity for traditional arts troupes nationwide to share their experiences, skills and knowledge of preserving classic dramas in modern time.

“The annual rendezvous is an ideal meeting amongst actistes and directors, after a year of hard work. New performances and new angles of traditional arts, and new faces, come out of the creations of arts troupes nationwide at the biggest contest of the year,” Bien said during the opening ceremony at the city’s Trung Vuong Theatre.

“We hope more outstanding shows would spark the development of traditional performances and attract young people to join the centuries-old arts,” he said.

Nearly 700 actistes from 11 arts troupes nationwide will stage 17 shows, of which 10 are classic dramas, in Da Nang over 9 days.

Gold medals will be awarded on 29 August to the best performances, actistes, directors and choreographers.

Shows will be staged at 9am and 8pm daily, and visitors can attend by obtaining free tickets.

Da Nang is the first city to introduce Tuong to the public and tourists, with outdoor performances held every Sunday night.

The dramas were introduced at some of the city's junior high schools as a pilot project to preserve the centuries-old arts.

Last year, Tuong Xu Quang (Quang Nam’s classic drama) was recognised as a National Intangible Heritage.

The city also has a collection of 204 classical Tuong scripts, written in Han (Chinese script) and Vietnamese ideographic characters (Nom), which were published between 1802-1845.

(Source: VNA/ Da Nang Today)