The story of one of the first Nghe people to be awarded the title of People's Artist

(Baonghean) - “I opened my eyes to the world in the city of Vinh… As a child, I did not know anything about life, but was immediately influenced by the art of Tuong”. Those are the first lines in the book “My Life on the Tuong Stage”, which by some chance I got my hands on and could not stop reading.

People's Artist Le Ba Tung.

The book published in 1977 by the Culture Publishing House listed the authors as Le Ba Tung (narrated) and Thanh Dang Khanh (recorded). Not many people know that Le Ba Tung - the person who recounted his life through that book was the Tuong artist Le Ba Tung, one of the first Nghe people to be awarded the noble title: People's Artist (NSND).

When I closed the last pages of that old book, I was really amazed with the list of nearly 90 roles on the Tuong stage throughout the life of artist Le Ba Tung, which he remembered in every detail. It felt like People's Artist Le Ba Tung lived with those roles as if they were real stages of his life. Or in other words, he loved and transformed into each of those roles to live his real life.

Those roles are also his life history. The role of Ly Nguyen Ba's son in the play "Thi Vo Ly Nguyen Ba" first performed in Vinh in February 1920 in the Vinh Tuong Long theater troupe of Mr. Nguyen Van Lien; the role of Cao Lung's son in the play "Cao Lung Pha Cuu Ca Hoa Xa", first performed in Thanh Hoa in May 1922, in the theater troupe of Mr. BH; the role of Thach Sanh in the play "Thach Sanh" first performed in Ha Tinh in October 1922, in the theater troupe of Mr. BG... Just like that, his days and months of life wandered with theater troupes and roles all over the country...

It can be said that, when he was born, life gave him a predestined relationship with Tuong. Le Ba Tung was born in 1899 in De Tam Street, Vinh Town, now Vinh City. His house was near the Tuong theater (next to Le Pagoda). This was the only Tuong theater in Vinh at that time. In Le Ba Tung's memory, that theater was initially thatched and covered with bamboo, with about 200 seats. Later, it was renovated quite properly, with a tiled roof, brick walls, a stage, and a resting room, accommodating over 400 people. The theater became a performance venue for traveling theater troupes from the three regions. Every night, the young Tung witnessed crowds of people bustling to the Tuong theater after the drum beat.

Tuong artist Le Ba Tung in the role of old Ta in the play "Tam Nu Do Vuong"

In Le Ba Tung's memoir, he also mentioned the painting series "Five Tigers Paving Liao" with the characters Dich Mau, Luu Khanh, Princess Trai Ba and Bang Hong. The day he bought the paintings, his mother pointed to this series of paintings and told him the story of a play.

He loved the story and the series of paintings so much that he always thought about it, and one day, he asked his mother to keep the series of paintings as his “own” and to keep them as a treasure. When he first went to school, Le Ba Tung only focused on his series of paintings. He painted his characters with the colors he loved and hated.

Le Ba Tung also often secretly performed singing and dancing in the style of a theater troupe in the classroom. Every night, people saw the boy Tung hanging around the theater gates, pretending to be the children of the ladies and girls who came to watch the show secretly. After this trick failed to fool the gatekeeper, he resorted to climbing over the fence, climbing over the wall, going straight to the dressing room, making friends with the actors by doing what they asked, sometimes buying matches, betel nuts or getting water to drink... Admiring the talent of the actors and actresses, liking their innocent and comfortable lifestyle, the boy dreamed that one day, when he grew up, he would also be able to go on stage to perform plays like them...

Passionate about plays and roles, under the layers of makeup, he felt like the actors had a mysterious power. Just a small stage, fancy costumes, a few dance moves…, yet they made people cry, laugh, sob, feel sorry… Le Ba Tung did not know that he had begun to embark on a career of “singing” that would forever be nailed to his life.

In 1912, when Le Ba Tung was 15 years old, his father passed away, his mother sent him to a close friend of his father to go to the North to find a living. This person arranged for him to work as a fan puller for a station master. The salary was quite good, he used this money to rent books to read and go to the theater. While life was peaceful, he heard that there was a children's theater troupe that often performed plays at the crossroads flower garden. So he decided to quit his fan job and follow that troupe...

The following years of Le Ba Tung were associated with the names of teachers and troupes: Vinh Tuong Long troupe of Mr. Nguyen Van Lien, Phuong Lau troupe, Thai Mong Dai troupe, Bang Ho troupe, Tu Chau troupe, Vien Quang troupe, Tho Vinh Dai troupe... At that time, the plays, in addition to depicting ancient stories, also expressed the spirit of the times in each sentence and character style. The actors brought love, hate, resentment, national debt, family revenge to the stage. Le Ba Tung felt and loved the plays more, because there, he could act very truthfully about this life.

Tuong artist Le Ba Tung plays Dao Lenh Cong in the play "Dao Phi Phung".

In the memoir, it feels like Le Ba Tung remembered every role, every movement, every emotion of every sentence, every hand gesture. The late journalist Le Ba Lieu (the youngest son of People's Artist Le Ba Tung) once told about the time he lived with his father and the later years of People's Artist Le Ba Tung (also known as Chanh Tung by Tuong fans):

“In 1959, the State established the Central Theater School in Cau Giay, my father was invited to be a teacher of the school's drama department. He brought me along and sent me to study at a private school next to the school. Day after day, my father was busy with teaching, writing books, acting in films... Rarely resting outside of the regular weekend holidays, he took me to visit teacher Dan - the person who taught me how to read. In 1968, I joined the army to fight in the South, my father retired in his hometown (Thai Hoa Town, Nghia Dan District).

My mother said that when my father retired, for the rest of his life, he vowed to live and die only with the Tuong stage. So when he had not yet settled down at home and all the paperwork had not been transferred to the locality, he went to help the local art troupes, staging Tuong plays, considering it an opportunity to spread the art of Tuong singing to the public. For the art troupes around the region at that time, inviting Mr. Chanh Tung was very valuable. Not because of his title as a "Central Tuong teacher", and not because he taught without taking any remuneration, but mainly because of his acting talent and his loyal and kind heart towards the profession.

In 1984, my father passed away at the age of 85 when he was staging an unfinished traditional play for the district. In 1997, on the 13th anniversary of his death, I returned to my hometown to burn incense for my father, at the same time he was posthumously awarded the title of People's Artist by the State. My sister emotionally recounted that the ceremony to award the title to my father was very respectful. The provincial leaders and leaders of the Department of Culture all highly appreciated his talent and professional ethics. In particular, the Folk Arts Association commented that he was a person who contributed to the vocational training in the art form that always took morality and loyalty as the foundation for all performances, lasting forever with humanity.

I visited the small house of journalist Le Ba Lieu in Thai Hoa town a few years ago. On the family altar, I saw a humble stone photo of People's Artist Le Ba Tung. His face had a gentle and humorous look. I did not know that he was one of the first artists from Nghe An to be honored as People's Artist. But I understood that Le Ba Tung did not live for that, but because on the Tuong stage, he lived his own life.

Thuy Vinh