by Linda Chin
Greater Boston theater audiences – time to buckle your seat belts and get ready for a rollicking ride across 1970s America. In collaboration with the Pao Arts Center, Company One Theatre’s Vietgone by Marvel Studios writer Qui Nguyen opens April 26, and knowing the team of authentic artists involved, they will tell their truths and touch our hearts. Set in and around the fall of Saigon in 1975 the subject matter is serious, but with the playwright’s irrepressible and irreverent style promises to be a hilarious road trip.
Vietgone is an all-American hip-hop rom-com based on the mostly-true story of Nguyen’s parents. Quang (played by Quentin Nguyen-duy) and Tong (played by Christina Mei Chen) are Vietnamese refugees who meet at a relocation camp in Arkansas, hook up and fall in love. Quang and his buddy Nhan (Rob Chen) then head ‘west’ together on a motorcycle, meeting a cast of characters along the way (multiple roles played by actors Rob Chen, Kim Klasner, and Jude Torres). Are there stereotypes that Vietgone will successfully bust? Yes, if like most of us you’ve never seen Vietnamese (or Asian) men and women’s sexy, savvy, sassy and badassy sides portrayed on stage before. Possibly, depending on how the bits involving Ninja Warriors, Redneck Biker, Hippie Dude, Flower Girl, Asian Girl, Asian Guy, American Girl and American Guy are portrayed.
As for the play’s historical truth, that may be a topic for discussion amongst the audience, as like the artists themselves everyone brings their own individual experience and perspectives to the work. Nguyen wrote Vietgone with his lens as a Vietnamese American man whose parents had their own reasons for fleeing Saigon, and as a parent whose children may have been curious about their family history. Quang was a captain in the South Vietnamese forces fearing for his life. Tong’s backstory includes escaping from the memories of a former boyfriend and leaving her younger brother behind. Dramaturgs Jessie Baxter and Jessica Scout Malone created a blog for the artistic team (https://vietgonec1.wordpress.com) with posts titled “Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting” and “Rom Com Tropes.”
For director Michelle Aguillon, whose body of stage work this season has included Quannapowit’s Terra Nova, Umbrella’s The Joy Luck Club, and Theatre Uncorked’s Sylvia, her connection to Vietgone is both professional and deeply personal. Vietgone is the third play set in war-torn Vietnam that she has helmed in her career, GR (Graveyard Registration) Point for Hovey Players in 2003, and in 2005, Turtle Lane’s Miss Saigon. Aguillon’s backstory is that her Philippines-born parents moved to the US when she was a child, and her father served in the Vietnam War, but never came home. He was on the first flight of Operation BabyLift to leave Saigon, and did not survive the plane’s emergency landing. Aguillon was eight years old when he died, and more than four decades later the story of Vietgone will reflect her truth as well.
For director Michelle Aguillon, whose body of stage work this season has included Quannapowit’s Terra Nova, Umbrella’s The Joy Luck Club, and Theatre Uncorked’s Sylvia, her connection to Vietgone is both professional and deeply personal. Vietgone is the third play set in war-torn Vietnam that she has helmed in her career, GR (Graveyard Registration) Point for Hovey Players in 2003, and in 2005, Turtle Lane’s Miss Saigon. Aguillon’s backstory is that her Philippines-born parents moved to the US when she was a child, and her father served in the Vietnam War, but never came home. He was on the first flight of Operation BabyLift to leave Saigon, and did not survive the plane’s emergency landing. Aguillon was eight years old when he died, and more than four decades later the story of Vietgone will reflect her truth as well.
(A version of this story appeared previously in Sampan)
