Playwright Nguyen Trung Phong: A life devoted to Nghe An theater

Trung Phuong is a peaceful village next to the famous Hai Vai cliff of Dien Chau. The small house of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Suu is located in the middle of hamlet 2, quiet and shaded by trees. She lives alone in this house, at the age of nearly 90, with photos and memories of her husband - playwright Nguyen Trung Phong.

Playwright Nguyen Trung Phong was once the Deputy Director of Nghe Tinh Department of Culture. But before becoming a leader and manager devoted to art, he was a farmer in this small village. He wrote many plays under his quiet roof in Trung Phuong village, including the once famous play “Lam River Girl”.

Mrs. Suu said: When he came back to write The Girl of the Lam River, he was almost absorbed, rarely paying attention to anyone, although normally he was very funny and talkative. When I came home from farming, if I saw my father and children happy, I knew that he had written a lot and had many ideas, but if I saw a gloomy face, I knew that he had not written anything satisfactory. At times like that, no one dared to ask me. Because even if we asked, he would not say anything. For Mr. Phong, writing plays was his life. Even though he was a farmer, he was proficient in plowing and harrowing, and often went to the fields with his wife and children when he visited home.

Born in 1928, since childhood, the folk songs and folk songs of Nghe An countryside have permeated the soul of playwright Nguyen Trung Phong. He innocently grew up with the fields, his artistic soul always cheerful with the many changes of the times. His singing voice rose on the plowed furrows, blending with the enthusiastic rhythm of the villagers' work. "At that time, he was in charge of the youth team, and I was in the team's activities there. We got to know each other and became friends from there. Later, he went to work in the district to do propaganda, then went to the province to do culture and arts. But every time he came back, he would share about his work as a playwright, or sometimes he would spend time at home writing plays for peace. I was the opposite of him, I didn't know how to sing or write poetry, but I always listened to him talk, he told stories, and every time I watched his plays performed in the countryside, I was moved and proud," Mrs. Suu confided.

Without ever having attended any music or screenwriting training, Nguyen Trung Phong wrote music and plays with his instincts, his innate artistic talent, his absorption of the folk culture of Nghe An countryside and all his life experiences. He lived and wrote very innocently.

Poet Thach Quy - who once lived next door to playwright Nguyen Trung Phong in the Nghe An Literature and Arts Association said: "Since my youth, when I was still in my hometown (Dong Bich village, Trung Son, Do Luong), I have seen people perform plays whose author's name was Nguyen Trung Phong. Those were plays about land reform. It seems to have been around 1956 - 1957. I can't remember the name of the play, but I remember the character was Mrs. Hoe Ton.

Later, I never expected that there would be times when I would be in the same group as Trung Phong. He was many levels above me at that time (he was a leader) but lived a very simple and rustic life. He could sing to anyone he met a few melodies that he had just composed. He always patted their shoulders and asked: “Nha (you) write down the lyrics, let me see if it is okay”. He sang like that, without knowing how to notate music. He asked for opinions and sincerely listened to suggestions, diligently making corrections (not on paper but on his own voice). Just like that, one by one, his musical works and scripts were born…”

Nguyen Trung Phong with “Lam River Girl”…

It is difficult to name the works that Nguyen Trung Phong has contributed to the Nghe An drama stage. From: Don't go, When the team is away, The rice seed of our homeland, Still going to battle, The girl of the Lam river... have made his name as one of the most famous scriptwriters of Nghe An during the years of fighting against the US. But it can be said that the two pinnacle works that are still remembered by the public are the song that people once mistook for a folk song of Nghe An in the play "When the team is away", the song (which some people call a melody): "Gian ma thuong", and the play "The girl of the Lam river" - the play that took the cheo and folk drama stages... across the country by storm in the 60s and 70s and won many gold and silver medals for the script, music, and actors at festivals. The roles left such a deep impression on the public that the names of the actors were forgotten and replaced by the names of the characters in the play when they met in everyday life.

With “The Girl of the Lam River”, Nguyen Trung Phong wrote it in 1959, when the Nghe An Art Troupe had just been established and he was working at the Department of Culture. He was assigned to write a script for the Cheo stage to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Nghe Tinh Soviet for the troupe to bring to the National Theater Festival. There were many worries and concerns because this was not a genre that was the forte of Nghe An theater, many actors were also new to Cheo singing, but after only 1 month, he completed this play. The play was first performed in 1960 to serve the 30th anniversary of the Nghe Tinh Soviet. In 1962, the Cheo play “The Girl of the Lam River” was brought to the National Professional Theater Festival and brought resounding success with 4 Gold Medals, 4 Silver Medals (for the play, director, music, scriptwriter, and some roles). After that, the Cheo play also made waves on the national stage with hundreds of performances. The play was then adapted into a folk drama of Nghe Tinh in 1974 and continued its journey to conquer audiences throughout the countryside of Nghe An.

The names of the stage artists have been “nailed” to the play, helping them step up to the high podium of glory, helping them have unforgettable memories in their lives. One of the most profound memories, perhaps, was the time the play was performed in the Presidential Palace for Uncle Ho to see and the scriptwriter Nguyen Trung Phong had his badge pinned on his chest by Uncle Ho.

Artist Kim Tan - who played the role of the mother of the bell in the famous Cheo play The Girl of the Lam River in the past, was only eighteen or twenty at that time, and is now 75 years old. Still filled with emotion, she talked about the glorious years and memories of the Cheo troupe performing for Uncle Ho: "It can be said that Trung Phong's play brought me to the glory of acting when I was just a young girl, without much acting experience, without any formal training in acting school. We performed with all the sincerity, innocence, acting by instinct, guided by emotions. I could not have imagined that with only two short performances on stage, but with the role of the bell - the first and rare humorous role of my acting career - I won the Silver Medal at the National Theatre Festival that year. At that time, Mr. Mai Vy was the Deputy Minister of Culture, after the festival affectionately called me "Miss Mo Nghe An". Wherever I went, even on the Vinh - Hanoi train, people also recognized me and called me: Mom Mo!

We all loved the play and were absorbed in it because it was written in a very honest and close way. It accurately reflected the life, mood, and people of Nghe village. A girl named Nghe was a poor country girl but was resilient, brave, and devoted to the revolution. A mother named Mo was from the bottom of society but was still full of humor, intelligence, and had a spirit of resistance, looking for ways to fight against the bad, the evil, the injustice...

The performance for Uncle Ho was the most profound memory in my life. Before the performance, Uncle told us to pay attention to dressing up like in 1930-1931, then told us to try our best to perform “for his guests to see”. When the performance was over, Uncle went on stage. We rushed to Uncle, and he gave us candy. Then Uncle asked who wrote this play. Nguyen Trung Phong stepped out. Uncle praised him, then took his badge and pinned it on his chest. Trung Phong was so moved that he could not speak.”

Box: The play The Girl of the Lam River, later adapted into a folk opera, is associated with the names of the artists: Artist Minh Ngoc (later Artist Song Thao) as Ms. Nghe, Artist Dinh Tan as Mr. Chanh Tong, Artist Viet Cu as Mr. Ly Truong, Artist Kim Tan (later Meritorious Artist Hong Luu) as Ms. Seo (Mother of the Commissar), Artist Duc Hanh as Mr. Vinh (General Committee officer)...

And with "Anger but Love"

As for the famous song “Gian ma thuong”, according to musician Thanh Luu - former Head of Nghe An Folk Song Group, it was in the years 1965-1967 that the mass art movement in Nghe An began to develop in the form of folk opera Vi Giam. During this time, Nguyen Trung Phong composed the folk song drama “Khi ban doi di a”. When transferring this play to the Dien Binh commune art troupe, Dien Chau district to stage, he saw that the actors kept singing the same original Vi Giam melodies over and over again, which sounded monotonous and boring, and did not portray the character’s mood, especially in the scene where the wife stopped her husband from smuggling. From there, Nguyen Trung Phong came up with the idea of ​​adapting a new melody to suit. After many days of pondering, Nguyen Trung Phong composed a melody that he named “tran troi” for the character of the wife to sing. When listening to Trung Phong's performance and asking for advice, musician Mai Hong and musician Thanh Tung were very pleased, immediately suggested to the author to edit a few details and suggested changing the name of the song "tran tong" to "Giân ma thuong" to match the emotional nuances of the character and the theme of the song. When the play was performed, that part of the song really moved the audience. From then on, the song spread throughout the countryside of Nghe An.

Musician Thanh Luu added: “Nguyen Trung Phong is not a composer, he is not well-versed in music theory, but thanks to the sensitivity of a stage artist, and having accumulated a lot of folk and cheo knowledge, he created the song using the method of combining melodies that people often use, connecting vi to giam very smoothly, like the way of reciting on the street (or history) and then bridging to singing in cheo. Of course, when linking vi and gam, he adapted it using the technique of imitating progressions, refrains and repetitions, emphasizing the main sound image, keeping the characteristic timbre, it sounds very “Nghe”, very folk but also very modern, both rich in emotion and versatile. It can be said that the song “Giận mà Thương” is one of the most successful stage adaptations of Nghe Tinh folk songs ever.

Ironically, over the past few decades, “Giận mà Thương” has become the “favorite” song of many professional and amateur singers, the “key” song in Nghe Tinh plays as well as folk music programs. People also printed, recorded audio and video on tapes and discs, broadcast regularly on television and radio stations, and sold them in kiosks in the country and abroad... Yet the person who created that song did not receive any royalties, and even the author’s name was not listed. What a terrible copyright violation.” Also, musician Thanh Luu said: “Just with “Giận mà Thương” and “Cô Gái Sông Lam”, playwright Nguyen Trung Phong deserved to receive the State Prize for Literature and Arts.”

Yet, until now, playwright Nguyen Trung Phong has not yet received this well-deserved award. However, everyone in Nghe An knows about “The Girl of the Lam River” and “Angry and Loving”. In my meetings with the artists of the past, I still see, sparkling in their eyes, the love and respect for him - the one who brought them to the stage of glory, and still see the lingering nostalgia in the eyes of his life partner who is now nearly 90 years old, saying: “Every time I remember him, I take out his photo taken with the Nghe An art troupe of the past to look at.”