According Ho Anh Tuan, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, on Monday the Ministry decided to cancel the planned merging of two popular theatres in the north – the Viet Nam Drama Theatre and Tuoi Tre (Youth) Theatre – to form a new theater called the Vietnam National Theatre.

A show at Youth Theatre

On March 27, Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh signed the Decision No. 1153 to combine the two theaters with the aim to develop the country’s dramatic arts.

Under the merging plan, People’s Artist Le Hung, who was director of the two theatres, was appointed the top leader at the new Vietnam National Opera Theatre. The new theatre would gather nearly 300 employees, including 100 artists from Viet Nam Drama Theatre and 180 from the Youth Theatre.

However, the merger faced opposition from artists from the Youth and the Vietnam Drama theatres as well as experts in the industry, since they thought the combination was not prepared carefully regarding both facilities and development orientations.

Before the cancellation on May 21, the Ministry had announced a plan on May 8 to postpone the merging after the fierce reactions from artists.