Tinh Yeu va Khat Vong (Love and
Aspiration), a classical drama written by Pham Ngoc Son, drew hundreds of
viewers when it was performed in the central province of Phu Yen’s Phu Hoa
District on Wednesday night.

Creating a new land: A scene from the classical drama Tinh Yeu va Khat Vong (Love and Aspiration). (Photo: VNS)

The
performance was held to celebrate 400 years since the formation of the province
as well as national tourism year 2011, which will open in Phu Yen tomorrow,
April 2.

The
drama praises the province’s tutelary god Luong Van Chanh, who dedicated more
than 30 years of his life, at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of
the 17th, to bringing together ethnic groups to break fresh ground in the
southern parts of the nation to help shape the Phu Yen of today.

The
ethnic groups included Cham, E De and Ba Na people.

Audience
members, ranging from the elderly to children, said “it’s great!” They burst
into applause and smiles during scenes of feudal generals competing in archery
contests and slaying a tiger.

The were
silent as they absorbed a scene of Chanh monologing to himself about his inmost
feelings.

The
drama also features scenes about the love between Chanh and a beautiful Cham
girl, but in the end the audience felt that above all was Chanh’s love for his
native soil and compatriots and his desire to create a beautiful and rich land
of well-off people.

“The
play’s major themes are the love and harmonisation of people and the aspiration
to construct a new land,” said script writer Pham Ngoc Son.

“From
now on, this land will be home for all three thousand people of the brother
ethnic groups… Together we make rice from pebbles and stones…,” he cited a
few words from the piece.

The
director of the Phu Yen Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism, Tran Van Nhat,
said he expected the play would help people, especially younger generations,
understand their origin and the great services their ancestors rendered to the
homeland.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News