Minishow «Hà Nội và tôi» (Hanoi and Me)

   A small stage on Tran Duy Hung street gives a whole evening to songs written about Hanoi, in a room close enough that you hear the singers breathe between lines. What makes it unusual is who performs: not guest stars, but the teaching staff of the arts centre putting the night on.

   The show is produced by the Trong Dong Arts Centre (Trung tâm Nghệ thuật Trống Đồng) and falls into two halves. The first, «Ký ức Hà Nội» — Memories of Hanoi — reconstructs the city of the hard years, when people had little and still kept their manners. The second, «Hà Nội của tôi» — My Hanoi — looks at the same streets through the eyes of people living there now.

   The songs listed for the evening:

   Trời Hà Nội Xanh
Nhớ Về Hà Nội
Gửi Người Em Gái
Hà Tây Quê Lụa
Nỗi Lòng Người Đi
Hà Nội Của Tôi
Hà Nội 12 Mùa Hoa

   Four voices carry the night: Thanh Van, Thu Ha, Viet Anh and the centre's director Thanh Hoa. Trung Kien, the centre's deputy director, hosts, and it is his first time doing so — the organisers describe his role as turning the pages of a memory book alongside the audience rather than simply announcing the next number.

   It suits Hanoians of any generation, anyone drawn to Vietnamese pre-war and revolutionary ballads, and newcomers to the capital who want to understand why this particular city gets sung about so often.

   An evening where the city you live in shows up in someone's voice.