Touching hearts with history: The appeal of "Legend of Youth"
WVR - The experiential performance "Legend of Youth" by author-director Le Quy Duong does not recreate the war through dry numbers but through emotions, smiles, and the unfinished promises of female heroes, young volunteers, who bravely sacrificed at the tender ages of eighteen and twenty. The work is an emotional artistic tribute, taking viewers into a sacred dialogue between the past and the present.
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| The performance "Legend of Youth" staged by author-director Le Quy Duong. (Photo: Ai Linh) |
Throughout the nation's history, Nga ba Dong Loc (Dong Loc Junction) is remembered as a heroic anthem of the indomitable spirit of the youth volunteers in the resistance war against the U.S. 58 years ago, at this very place, 10 young female volunteers bravely sacrified their lives.
These 10 young female volunteers from Nga ba Dong Loc belonged to Platoon 4, Company 552, Battalion 55, including: Vo Thi Tan (24 years old, Platoon Leader), Ho Thi Cuc (24 years old, Deputy Platoon Leader), Nguyen Thi Nho (24 years old), Duong Thi Xuan (21 years old), Vo Thi Hoi (20 years old), Nguyen Thi Xuan (20 years old), Ha Thi Xanh (19 years old), Tran Thi Huong (19 years old), Tran Thi Rang (18 years old), Vo Thi Ha (17 years old). They fell at a very young age. Alongside them, over 4,000 heroic martyrs also lay down on this vital road. The ten girls sacrificed their lives at the age of eighteen and twenty, with none having started a family.
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| A scene from the performance "Legend of Youth". (Photo: Ai Linh) |
The sacrifice of the 10 young female volunteers and the selfless spirit of the officers, soldiers, and people at the Dong Loc battlefield are a beautiful symbol of revolutionary heroism, reflecting the peace aspirations of every Vietnamese citizen. All of this will be recreated in the artistic space of the performance Legend of Youth staged by author-director Le Quy Duong.
Letting the past "speak"
Sharing with The World &Vietnam Report about the journey of launching the performance Legend of Youth, author-director Le Quy Duong revealed that it took him just 30 hours to complete the entire script. During the writing process, he felt each character and event appear before him, guiding and directing him.
“As a professional playwright, I discovered a very new emotion for myself. I felt creativity passing through me, not originating from me. I did not impose my subjectivity on the lives of the characters but let them remain authentic, live with me, and share with me what they wanted,” said author-director Le Quy Duong.
Director Le Quy Duong emphasized that he did not want to impose a subjective view or use modern stage techniques to obscure the authenticity of history. He chose to let the past "speak" for itself. To most accurately recreate the image of Platoon 4 from years ago, the team conducted a rigorous casting process, requiring actors to be between the ages of 18 and 24 – exactly matching the ages of the 10 female heroes at the time of their death.
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| The actors playing the 10 Dong Loc girls are all very new faces. (Source: Vietnamese Women's Museum) |
Author-director Le Quy Duong values authenticity to evoke emotions in the audience, which is why the actors playing the 10 Dong Loc girls are all very new faces, with some still in their first or second year at the Hanoi Academy of Theatre and Cinema.
The stage decoration is a unique art installation with deep historical value. In terms of staging, to recreate the setting of Nga ba Dong Loc and evoke the most genuine emotions for the performance, author-director Le Quy Duong collaborated with the Management Board of the Dong Loc Relic Site to transport 5 tons of real soil from the old Dong Loc battlefield to Hanoi.
“We all know that every inch of soil at the Dong Loc battlefield bears traces of bombs and mingles with the bones, blood, and flesh of over 4,000 people who sacrificed. This is a fact, not a metaphor. Therefore, bringing 5 tons of real soil into the artistic decoration of the program holds historical value, especially when the performance is regularly staged at the Vietnamese Women's Museum.
Visitors to the Museum will feel this in a very spiritual way, in front of the sacred story of the 10 heroic young female volunteers at the Dong Loc battlefield,” director Le Quy Duong expressed.
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| The audience was moved when watching the performance "Legend of Youth". (Source: Vietnamese Women's Museum) |
Experiencing walking on 5 tons of Dong Loc soil, transforming into the female heroes of the past with modern-day actresses who have never known war, never heard the roar of bombs, is a rather special experience.
Actress Hong Ngoc, who plays martyr Duong Thi Xuan, emotionally shared: “Every time I step on stage, standing on the soil taken from the old battlefield, I feel the same emotion, as if the souls of the sisters are merging with today's generation.”
A symphony of ideals and love
Not following the usual path of historical plays, Legend of Youth chooses a simple approach that strongly impacts emotions: Reconstructing the spiritual life, dreams, and even the most ordinary thoughts of the ten girls.
Under the stage lights, the audience encounters the playful, smiling, and singing young female volunteers in their twenties. They also know how to be coquettish, like to look in the mirror, have budding feelings, and make promises with their loved ones on the battlefield. But above all, rising above the everyday fears at the thin line between life and death, they live, fight, and remain steadfast in their revolutionary ideals.
The overarching message of the entire work is encapsulated in the phrase: “Live a life worth living.” The lives of the female heroes, though short, ending at eighteen and twenty, were the most brilliant and complete because they were wholly dedicated to the peace aspirations of a nation. The emotional scenes when the ten girls sing in unison to drown out the bombs, or the moments they hold each other's hands before the fateful bombing, have brought tears to countless audiences.
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| Regularly performed at the Vietnamese Women's Museum, "Legend of Youth" has become a unique cultural phenomenon in the capital. (Source: Vietnamese Women's Museum) |
Speaking with The World &Vietnam Report, author-director Le Quy Duong stressed that the performance Legend of Youth is the starting point in his journey to stage authentic and vibrant works at traditional cultural and historical heritage sites, breathing life into historical relics, serving as cultural tourism products and profound historical lessons conveyed to contemporary audiences through creative and modern forms without losing traditional values.
The journey of author-director Le Quy Duong is quiet and silent, yet marked by effective and impressive works and projects such as the staged rituals at the Thang Long Imperial Citadel in Hanoi, the Ngoc Son - Mysterious Night program at Ngoc Son Temple, Legend of Youth – Live a Life Worth Living at the Vietnamese Women's Museum, and Steel Land in Cu Chi.
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| Author Le Quy Duong and actors playing the 10 Dong Loc girls with international audiences. (Photo: Ai Linh) |
Revealing his upcoming plans, author-director Le Quy Duong shared that he is diligently researching, writing scripts, and continuing to stage a series of experiential theater programs at "fire coordinates" during the war along the length of the country, aiming to commemorate the 80th anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs Day in 2027, with the desire to pay tribute to the previous generations who sacrificed for the nation.
The spread of a historical lesson through emotion
Regularly performed at the Vietnamese Women's Museum, Legend of Youth has become a unique cultural phenomenon in the capital. Initially, the Museum's representatives were quite hesitant about the decision to incorporate a historical experiential art program into regular activities. However, the warm reception from the public, especially the younger generation, has proven that this is a completely right direction. The performance is both a unique cultural tourism product and a profound educational lesson that strongly inspires contemporary audiences.
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| The script "Legend of Youth" staged at a theater in Bangladesh. (Photo: Le Quy Duong) |
History is no longer dry lines in textbooks but comes alive with flesh and blood, with the breaths, smiles, and tears of ten girls. The impact of Legend of Youth has transcended Vietnam's borders when the leadership of the Department of Theatre and Performing Arts at Dhaka University (Bangladesh) chose and decided to restage the performance to introduce to the local audience the beautiful image of Vietnamese women shining with steadfast and indomitable spirit.
Not only in Bangladesh, Legend of Youth has had international resonance in various forms and types of staging; it has been introduced and widely received in over 80 member countries of the International Theatre Association.
The war has receded, Nga ba Dong Loc today is lush with the colour of life and peace. However, the youthful flame of the 10 girls from that year has never extinguished. It still burns, smoldering and fierce, in the blood of today's generations. As the performance concludes and the stage lights dim, what remains in the audience's heart is not only emotion and gratitude but also a weighty question: Have we lived a life worth living?
| The program Legend of Youth in collaboration with the Le Quy Duong Theatre Centre and the Vietnamese Women's Museum will be performed free of charge for three days from July 25-27 at 8 PM at the Vietnamese Women's Museum, 36 Ly Thuong Kiet, Cua Nam Ward, Hanoi. Each performance serves only 120 spectators. After the free tribute performances on the occasion of the 79th anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs Day (July 27, 2026), the program will be regularly performed on Saturday evenings at the Vietnamese Women's Museum. |
