Cai luong loses ground in Delta birthplace

Cai luong (reformed theatre) is struggling to keep its audiences, whose interests in the art form are being lost to modern entertainment in the cradle of its birthplace, the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, where it began in the early 20th century.
In Can Tho City, which is seen as the capital of the Delta, cai luong fans can find few official venues dedicated to the art other than the Hau Giang Theatre, where Tay Do Troupe occasionally stages shows.
Cai luong actors have to find venues for their performances at eateries and on tourist boats where they perform to an audience who is more interested in having fun around the dining tables than in appreciating their singing and acting.
At cabarets and restaurants across the city packed with customers during Tet (Lunar New Year Holiday), vong co songs with nostalgic tunes [the main tune of cai luong dramas], were heard amidst boisterous cheering and talking.
Some of the restaurants combine performances of vong co songs into their schedules every evening to entertain their customers, including boat restaurants at Ninh Kieu Pier on the Can Tho River.
No matter how beautifully they sing, their singing is often dominated by glasses clinking, noisy conversations and the laughs of customers who were usually too deep in their own conversations to pay attention to the artists’ efforts.
It was not only in the case of Can Tho City, but also in provinces across the Delta, where cai luong no longer enjoys the lustre it had on the big stage that it did several decades ago.
"We sing at restaurants just to make a living and are not really mindful of our reputation as artists," lamented a vong co singer who performs on boat restaurants and refused to identify himself.
"Many of us do other jobs during days and perform in the evenings to earn some extra money," he said.
"The poor popularity of the art causes troupes to disintegrate, and passionate artists have no choice but to perform elsewhere to live out their passion for the art," he added.
However, there is also a dark side behind restaurant performances, including indecent behaviour by drunken customers.
At some places, performers have to hand over tips to restaurant owners. Generally, they earn as much as an average blue-collar worker, with which they can just make ends meet.
"Almost all provincial troupes stick to volatile schedules with sporadic shows," conceded actor Thanh Nam, impresario of the Kien Giang Troupe from its namesake province.
Nam said he was pained by the situation of cai luong, noting that most of his actors were really dedicated to the art.
There are seven troupes in the Delta, most notably Can Tho Province’s Tay Do and Ca Mau Province’s Huong Tram troupes. Most of them make performance tours to remote villages where they are warmly welcomed by local farmers but earn little revenue.
The troupes usually suffer losses and cannot invest in high-quality. They can barely survive without state subsidies.
"We’re deficient in both money and good actors," Nam said, explaining the reasons for cai luong’s hardship. "But above all, audiences are turning their backs on the art."
Few shows and poor incomes have done much to erode the artists’ passion for their art, and many of them are not motivated to invest more effort in their performances, resulting in superficial dramas that fail to appeal to the audience.