'Debt to the Country': A touching and meaningful play about President Ho Chi Minh

The playis a combination of Cai Luong stage art and some other traditional art forms such as Vi folk songs, Nghe Tinh Giam songs, Hue songs, Zone 5 bai choi songs and Southern folk songs,depicts the image of President Ho Chi Minh from childhood to the time he boarded the ship to France.

A scene from "Debt to the Country".

With a duration of 120 minutes, the crew selected typical slices of the first 20 years of President Ho Chi Minh's life. In the middle of the lotus season in May in Hoang Tru, the mother's hometown, Nguyen Sinh Cung, was born in the happy arms of his grandparents and parents. After many changes, in 1901, Nguyen Sinh Cung's mother - Hoang Thi Loan - passed away in Hue, when her husband and eldest son were on a business trip to Thanh Hoa.Nguyen Sinh Nhuan - Nguyen Sinh Cung's younger brother - also died not long after due to hunger and illness.

Scene of Nguyen Tat Thanh (white ao dai) at Lien Thanh Trading Company headquarters in Saigon.

The turning point that had a strong impact on Nguyen Tat Thanh's ideology was when his father - Mr. Nguyen Sinh Sac, district chief of Binh Khe, Binh Dinh - was recalled to Hue to face punishment for defending the poor and encouraging patriotism... When his father and brother returned to Hue, Nguyen Tat Thanh was introduced by his father's old friend to teach at Duc Thanh School.

Then, Nguyen Tat Thanh went to Saigon.to the headquarters of Lien Thanh Thuong Quan. This was a business organization founded by patriotic scholars in Binh Thuan in 1906 to respond to the Duy Tan movement initiated by Phan Chau Trinh, Tran Quy Cap and Huynh Thuc Khang. Here, Nguyen Tat Thanh sought an opportunity to board a ship to France, to find a way to save the country.

The play is based on historical slices, depicting his childhood, the development of his thoughts and aspirations. During the screening, "Debt to the Country" brought many tears to the audience, not only in typical highlights such as the scene where Nguyen Tat Thanh bid farewell to Le Thi Hue to find a way to save the country, but also aroused interest in the audience because this is a work that not only has the Cai Luong genre but also incorporates Nghe Tinh folk songs with very special performances.

In the scene where Mrs. Hoang Thi Loan was sick and asked Nguyen Sinh Cung to sing a lullaby to her crying youngest child, the song "Ho ru con""inserted: "Lullaby, baby, let me cry for salt. Let me go to the market to buy lime to chew betel"... When Mrs. Loan passed away, it was raining and windy, on one side Nguyen Sinh Cung called for his mother, on the other side baby Nguyen Sinh Nhuan cried loudly, Hue folk songs resounded, making many audiences emotional.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen The Ky answered the press at the press conference before the play's premiere.

“Debt to the Country” is a play about the life of President Ho Chi Minh during his lifetime, but it has created its own unique features, not boring because of the excellent scenes that other plays and films have had. “Debt to the Country” also conveys typical slices, not a work about the journey. Author and screenwriter Nguyen The Ky once answered the press in an interview: He did not do the work of writing history, but only showed slices and milestones from the childhood of the boy Nguyen Sinh Cung until the time the young man Nguyen Tat Thanh left to find a way to save the country.

Many critics commented after the premiere: "The director has carefully selected songs that can combine two genres and blend them together. When the artist is singing Vi Giam, he switches to Vong Co, still very smoothly. A play about President Ho Chi Minh is full of poetry, solemnity, and respect."

debt to the countryis the first part of the stage projectThousands of miles of mountains and riversabout President Ho Chi Minh, produced by the Vietnam Opera House. The next two parts are scheduled to be released in 2023 and 2024, focusing on Nguyen Tat Thanh's journey abroad and then returning home to make a revolution.