Horror play «Lụa Máu» (Blood Silk)

   A stage that grew up on comedy turns off the lights: the faces Ho Chi Minh City audiences know from farce spend this evening building dread instead. It was the theatre's first move into horror, and the piece has held its place in the repertoire across several seasons.

   Script and staging are both by Le Quoc Nam (Lê Quốc Nam), who also appears in the cast; the artistic adviser is People's Artist Tran Ngoc Giau (Trần Ngọc Giàu). The ticket seller bills the piece as the first production with a horror colouring this house has staged.

   Who is on stage:

• — Minh Nhí and Viet Huong (Việt Hương)
• — Cat Phuong (Cát Phượng) and Vo Tan Phat (Võ Tấn Phát)
• — Hua Minh Dat (Hứa Minh Đạt), Bao Bao (Bảo Bảo), Thach Thao (Thạch Thảo)
• — Hien Nguyen (Hiền Nguyễn), Quach Thanh Nhan (Quách Thành Nhân), Ku Vàng

   Casts rotate. The sale announcement and the production's own poster do not name the same people, and the poster closes its list with an open «and other actors», so read any single line-up as most of the evening rather than all of it.

   The venue carries its founder's legal name: audiences know the comedian as Minh Nhí, on paper he is Truong Hung Minh (Trương Hùng Minh), and he was named a Meritorious Artist in 2023. The play opened in December 2023 and took the house outside the comedy it was built on.

   The producers state plainly that this is not for anyone under 13, for pregnant women, or for people with heart conditions. The performance on sale at the moment is on Sunday 1 November, so seats are worth sorting out early.

   This one is for people who go to the theatre for genre, and for anyone curious to watch familiar Vietnamese comic actors working against type.

   The play is performed in Vietnamese; the producers say nothing about subtitles or interpretation.

   Bring someone you would not mind walking home with afterwards.