Abstract: The text of Tuong Cha Minh (The Play of Father Minh) by Marie-Antoine Louis Caspar (Co Loc), a French missionary, was first printed in 1881 at the Tan Dinh Printing House, Saigon, Vietnam. The play presented the last days of the Christian martyr Phan Van Minh, who had collaborated with his teacher, Taberd, in compiling the Vietnamese-Latin Dictionary and the Latin-Vietnamese Dictionary in 1838, which marked him the first Vietnamese to compile a dictionary. Analyzing the techniques used in building the story conflict and characters, this article proves that Tuong Cha Minh, to the current evidences and knowledge, was the earliest modern play written in Romanized Vietnamese, marking a significant milestone in the history of both Vietnamese theatre and literature.
Keywords: Tuong Cha Minh, Marie-Antoine Louis Caspar, Co Loc, Phan Van Minh, modern drama, Romanized Vietnamese.