The festival, which is held every five years, ended after an 11-day nationwide competition with an awards ceremony at the Vietnam-Japan Cultural Friendship House in Halong City, in the northern coastal province of Quang Ninh.

Hundreds of artists from 17 cheo troupes throughout the country performed 19 plays at the festival.

Well known directors were in hot demand with troupes employing them to arrange their performances. Doan Hoang Giang directed three plays and Le Hung staged four. Playwright Tran Dinh Ngon and Bui Dac Su each wrote five plays for the festival. Beside the veterans, the festival was joined by young directors such as Truong Hai Tho and Ha Quoc Minh.

Two performances, Linh Khi Hoa Lu (The Sacred Spirit of Hoa Lu) written by Bui Vu Minh, directed by artist Le Hung, and performed by Ninh Binh Province’s Cheo Theatre, and Chien Truong Khong Tieng Sung (Battlefield without Sound of Gunshots) directed by Le Hue based on the script by Pham Van Quy, performed by Nam Dinh Province’s Cheo Theatre won gold medals.

The organising board also presented silver medals to five other performances, including Hung Ca Bach Dang Giang (Epic of Bach Dang River) performed by the Cheo Art Troupe of the military’s General Department of Logistics and Ngoc Han Cong Chua (Princess Ngoc Han) of Hanoi’s Cheo Theatre.

Audiences packed the theatre for the 11 performance nights, which proved a heart-warming sight for cheo performers and an encouraging sign that Vietnamese people still retain a strong interest in the traditional art form. However the excitement of the festival is in sharp contrast to the reaction of local audiences in localities throughout the country.

"Attending the festival and enjoying the audience’s enthusiasm was really wonderful, like we were in heaven," says artist Luong Duyen from the northern province of Ha Nam. "However, in theatres in my locality, I often face half-empty stalls, sadly."

Cheo faces a serious danger of dying out says Minh from Vietnam Cheo Theatre.

"The interest and dedication of directors, screenplay writers and musicians, who are well versed enough in cheo, is too weak," he says.

Preserving and improving cheo will not be an easy or quickly remedied problem. The art’s development depends on effort of artists and financial investment by various government departments.