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In every Binh Dinh person’s heart, Tuong has left a deep impression of images of village towers, courtyards and storage yards, and it can tug at the heartstrings when they happen to hear a Tuong rhythm in their busy daily life.

I spent my childhood in a poor country area, near the old Lac Truong tower, on a wind-swept riverbank. The shade of the sandbox trees (hura crepitan) and cotton trees (bombax ceiba) covered the entire tower yard, while the trees by the river admired themselves in the water.

When the flowering season came, the cotton tree flowers blossomed fully so that one corner of my elementary school yard was aflame with the red flowers. Then it would be time for tuong, and the pulsating sound of the small tuong drum could be heard all over the village.

The children would hurry across the fields and crawl through a narrow opening of the fence to see the drama. Crowns, made-up faces, shining theatrical weapons, colourful flags, all these added to the spectacle.

How gorgeous it was! It had the power to wake up even a quiet peaceful village. Those days were so marvellous that every year, people looked forward to the festivals that brought the Tuong dramas to their village, having spent the rest of the year missing all the plays terribly, and looking longingly at the auto-rickshaws driving actors and actresses to faraway villages on rainy afternoons. There are still many poems describing how attractive the art of Tuong was.

Tuong in Binh Dinh is also called “gesturing drama” because, apart from singing, the precise gestures and movements of the actor are essential for an outstanding Tuong play. The balance of martial arts moves and acrobatic movements in each group depends on the actors’ skill levels.

Long ago, during the golden era of the Tuong dramatic arts, there were a great many performing Tuong groups. However, since the arrival of the modern market economy there has been a crisis in the dramatic community, with many Tuong troupes disbanding. 

In its hey-day, Tuong groups were invited to perform in many villages, towers and houses of rich people. Usually, at the end of each act, a rich and respected Tuong expert of the village would signal by a drumbeat his opinion of the troupe’s performance, and throw onto the stage symbolic paper for the money he believed they deserved for that part of the show.

At the end of the show all the artistes would sing a song of praise to wish the villagers or householders good luck, and gather up the tickets in order to collect their earnings, which came from the drummer’s own pocket.

According to Binh Dinh’s actor Vo Si Thua, an experienced exponent of  Tuong, this Vietnamese art has its roots in 17th century in Binh Dinh. Influenced by the ca tru drama from the north, and accompanied by folk dances, Binh Dinh citizens created a new kind of classical art, Tuong, and took it to a new level.

In the old days, every village in Binh Dinh had not only its own Tuong group but also a school to teach and train new actors and actresses. When Dao Tan came back to his hometown in Binh Dinh in the late 19th century, he looked for new talents and opened the Vinh Thanh communal house’s Institute (now located in Tuy Phuoc). The Tuong arts became more and more prominent in the region.

Thanks to Dao Tan’s wide knowledge of the Tuong arts, this institute became the most successful at training Tuong talents. Many famous artists were to emerge from this institute, including Bat Phan, Cuu Khi, Bau Thom, and Bau Chang. At that time, the art of Tuong was very much in vogue in all over the Binh Dinh region. It soon became the province’s hallmark. 

After hundreds of years, Tuong drama has gained a stronghold in every Binh Dinh native’s spiritual life. In this classical art, there are two basic aspects: singing and dancing.

If you can sing beautifully but your dancing is not good, you can’t become a true Tuong artist. To dance well, you have to learn martial arts.

According to scholar Vu Ngoc Lien, regardless of their sex, artists in ancient Binh Dinh Tuong groups were either martial arts disciples or masters. Without the martial art aspect, Tuong troupes could not have staged such lively dramas with their limited space and time.

Nowadays, apart from the Dao Tan classical drama theatre, there are only a lot of ad-hoc (non-government) Tuong groups in countryside of Binh Dinh, especially in An Nhon and Phu Cat districts.

These amateur groups are often invited to perform at fairs, village festivals or traditional ceremonies such as tower worship or prayers for a new fishing season.  The actors are farmers, who have never been to any art school or institute.

They are taught about this classical art by the elders of their villages, and perform Tuong as a part of village’s traditions and customs.  

After the performance, the gods, princes and heroes go back to their farm work, their gardens and their fields. They may not be trained actors but they have never surrendered their passion for the Tuong art. 

The classical art’s attraction is so long-lasting that even nowadays, Binh Dinh youth are still very keen on this dramatic art. Every night when the Tuong group comes to town, many boys and girls go to see the plays and fall in love with the stylised and symbolic gestures.

Audiences here not only come to see the drama but they also know already how to sing and dance. The school stage programme, which brings the classical dramas to students and trains them with professional skills, is widely endorsed.

Alongside this programme, other efforts to preserve and improve the Tuong classical art include popularising the dramas throughout Vietnam so that every region can provide for those who want to see for themselves the art of Tuong.

• Source: Travel & Entertainment Magazine