From being an “actress of negative characters”...
She has dimpled cheeks, small and sparkling black eyes, cute little lips and a husky voice with a high pitch. She has a strong will and a special passion for Cheo and this is how people often describe the artist, Thanh Ngoan.

In the Vietnamese Cheo circle, Thanh Ngoan is talked about as an artist with both talent and beauty. With this advantage, she should have been suitable for the roles of leading characters, but she has impressed the audience with her roles of “negative characters” who are sharp-tongued, talkative and pesky. 
 

Fate brought her to these roles by chance. At school, her teachers found that she had a very good singing voice but at that time she looked a bit “round”. That’s why although she studied for and played the most famous roles, such as Suy Van, Thi Mau and Thi Phuong, she was not cast as characters with slim bodies. Her first role was Dao Hue, a woman well-known for her jealousness and impudence, in the excerpt “Tuan Ty – Dao Hue” in the play “Chu Mai Than”.

With unexpected success in this role, she started to be cast in the roles of characters with a lot of personality, even the role of buffoons. Over dozens of years of being involved in Cheo performances she has been cast as many sharp-tongued and buffoonish characters, such as: Sung in “Quan Am Thi Kinh”; Kim in “Suy Van”, Giap At in “The Girl and the Wrestler”, the queen in “The Legendary Shepherd on the Moon”, the maid in “The Prince with Cow Ears”, No Ha in “Queen of Persia”, innkeeper Hong Chau in “Ho Xuan Huong” and Hoan Thu in “Kieu”.

In all her roles, she always left a deep impression on the audience. Mentioning artist Thanh Ngoan, the audience imagines a shrewish, sharp-tongued, a little bit humorous and witty woman.

Perhaps, it is her strong will that has helped her play these roles so successfully that it seems no other actresses can replace her. She has forged her niche with the nick name “an actress of negative characters” of Vietnamese Cheo both at home and abroad.


...To being the “captain” of Vietnam’s Cheo Theatre
Having gone to many places in the world to perform Cheo plays, artist Thanh Ngoan clearly understands and realizes the value of the traditional art. As Director of Vietnam’s Cheo Theatre, she not only takes responsibility for bequeathing Cheo to the next generations, but also directing the theatre with the mission of a “captain”.

Thanh Ngoan said: “I have a strong faith in this traditional art form. It will exist forever in the life and culture of the Vietnamese people”. With faith and responsibility, over the past years she and the other artists of Vietnam’s Cheo Theatre have worked out programmes and projects to bring Cheo closer to the audience. They have taken long strides to turn Cheo into a unique cultural product to promote tourism and introduce this traditional art to foreign audiences.

First of all, the programme to arrange traditional Cheo performances outdoors in the heart of the capital city should be mentioned. After a year of trial, the performances now take place every Friday evening outside and have become familiar to local audiences and foreign tourists in the capital. In the show for foreigners there is a voiceover in English to help the audience understand the play. Thus, her plan to restore an ancient form of Cheo in Hanoi has been initially successful.
 

 

The performance programme “Five Tones of Cheo” has received great support from local and foreign audiences and has been successful beyond the expectations. Also, the programme has received much appreciation from the experts. According to Thanh Ngoan, such great support has been attributed to the bold ideas and creative activities of the theatre.

In this programme, Thanh Ngoan has fully exploited the beautiful melodies in combination with the creative use of the traditional musical instruments of Cheo. This is a “3 in 1” combination, including the ancient Cheo melodies, the fine music and the folk, but modern factor, which attracts the public to Cheo. It is the innovation and creativity that have made the researchers give the following assessment: “Vietnam’s Cheo Theatre has found a new path for Cheo music, creating a new breath for Vietnamese Cheo.”

Thanh Ngoan said: The “Five Tones of Cheo” seems to be new to the audience but there are still the rhythms taken from traditional Cheo music. The music instruments are old but the harmonization is new. It creates a new sound with new breath, making a difference and attracting the viewers.”

In the above mentioned ways, meritorious artist Thanh Ngoan and other artists of Vietnam’s Cheo Theatre has gradually revived Cheo performances for the public and introduced it to the foreign audience who love Vietnam’s traditional art./.