Duong Coc - A Tuong Village

For hundreds of years, Duong Coc Village in Dong Quang Commune, Quoc Oai District, Ha Tay Province has engaged in agricultural production. The villagers are assiduous farmers who work all day long in the fields. However, few people know that they have a great passion for the Tuong (Classical drama) art. 

The traditional musical band ofDuong Coc Village. Nguyen Kim Hue plays a role in a Tuong extract. The Tuong play “Trung Nu Vuong” performed by the Tuong Troup always attracts a large number of audiences. Nguyen Huy Thuong, Vice Chairman of the Tuong Club in Duong Coc Village talks with the actors and actresses before the performance. The Tuong Troupe’s activities are familiar to the villagers. 7 For hundreds of years, Duong Coc Village in Dong Quang Commune, Quoc Oai District, Ha Tay Province has engaged in agricultural production. The villagers are assiduous farmers who work all day long in the fields. However, few people know that they have a great passion for the Tuong (Classical drama) art. Having love for Tuong After a long and tiring day in the fields, and when night falls, Duong Coc villagers become real artists who perform Tuong plays. Farming and performing seem unrelated activities but have become a routine in Duong Coc Village. Nguyen Van Ly, Chairman of the Tuong Club in Duong Coc Village said: “People in the village became aware of Tuong by chance. In 1967 when the war was fiercely gripping the country, professional artists from the Central Tuong Theatre evacuated to Duong Coc Village and their passion for this art spread to the villagers. Since then the locals’ love for this art has become greater and they are devoted to it”. At that time, every evening, local farmers flocked to watch the plays performed by the Central Tuong Troupe. On New Year Holidays and festive occasions, it wasn’t necessary to travel to other localities to enjoy Tuong as it was being performed in their own village. nbsp;Their joys doubled when they established their own Tuong Troupe and made tours to perform in other areas in service of the mass artistic movement. Whenever on the stage, the members of the Tuong Troupe in Duong Coc Village put aside all their concerns of daily life to live the character’s life. At most national amateur theatrical festivals, the troupe has left a great impression on Tuong lovers. So far, the troupe has staged and performed more than 40 plays, including classical and modern plays, such as “Trung Nu Vuong”, “Tran Quoc Toan Leads an Army to March to the Battlefield”, “Tran Binh Trong”, “Sunshine Reflects on Pang Poi Stream”, “Ngheu So Oc Hen”, “Love between Fish and Water” and “A Militiawoman in an Economic Zone”. They have won hundreds of certificates of merit and gold medals. In late 2006, the troupe was awarded first place for the performance “Sunshine Reflects on Pang Poi Stream” at the national Tuong amateur theatrical festival held in Binh Dinh Province.                                                        The Tuong Troupe in Duong Coc Village often performs                                                              in the communal yard, the traditional stage of the village.