Types of Characters in Vietnamese Hát Bội: A Quick Guide
&product=custom-share-buttons" async="async">
“Hát bội” is a traditional performance art in Vietnam, it has a rich historical foundation, and quite an influence on the community. Just like any traditional art form, the stage of Hát bội also consists of Viet aesthetic values, reflecting the life, stories, and aspirations of the common Viet people.
For the staging performance of hát bội, characters hold a crucial factor. Without the characters, other elements such as plot, actions, dialogues…won’t be expressed fully. From then, the performers can have the relevant information to choose the appropriate motifs of musical-dialogue performance, choreography and costume.
“Mụ" is the type of female character (đào) that is elderly, their makeup tends to be light, with white eyebrows, silver hair, slow in movement; raspy singing-dialogues delivery. The majority of mụ motif are intellectual type, with a gentle and considerate manner. Example: Đổng mẫu; Dương linh bà despite her origin as a fiery general but often expressed as a prestige and sophisticated woman.
Therefore, the characters are not simply a reflection of the vibrant reality, but also an essential selection of different characteristics and a range of human values. In sum, aside from the function of participating in the plot, theatre characters in hát bội have an important function for the technical elements
Founded in 2020, Cultura Fish(Hiếu Văn Ngư, 好文魚) is a group of passionate members that come from various disciplines . Our core mission is to inspire and promotethe beauty of Vietnamese traditional practices and culture for the youth.