Play «Escape Room – Căn Nhà Ma Quái» (The Haunted House)

   A stage that Saigon locals keep for themselves, and only two performances in the whole of September. Twenty actors step out under the lights for a production whose title sounds like a game and like a warning at the same time — and this room is small enough that you watch faces change rather than silhouettes move.

   One thing to be clear about before you book: this is a scripted stage play, watched from a numbered seat, not a puzzle room you walk into and solve. The escape room is in the title; the form is theatre, with a director, a script and a set design.

   The essentials:

• — Written and directed by Gia Bảo; playwright Tâm Nhân
• — Set design by Trần Hồng Vân; production directors Trần Đại and An Thi
• — A twenty-strong cast including Tiểu Bảo Quốc, Anh Đức, Thuận Nguyễn, Minh Dự, Hữu Đằng, Lâm Nguyễn, Phạm Yến and Huỳnh Bảo Ngọc
• — The poster packs the whole company into a diamond frame: a young man at the centre with a fistful of banknotes and an open red box, horror make-up on the faces around him, photographs scattered through the frame

   It suits anyone who likes their drama with a ghostly streak and enjoys a crowded stage, where twenty characters keep handing the rhythm to one another. It also suits anyone curious about the city's theatre away from the tourist circuit — this is an ordinary repertory night for a home crowd, not a showcase built for visitors.

   The Thế Giới Trẻ hall holds 300+ seats with a small upper tier, so no row leaves you squinting. Seats come in three tiers, and the difference is distance from the stage: the VVIP tier is the front row itself.

   The two performances run at different hours: the Sunday show on 20 September starts at 16:00, the Saturday one on 26 September at 20:00. The theatre publishes neither a synopsis nor an age rating for this title, so use your own judgement if you are bringing a child.

   The play is performed in Vietnamese.

   Two dates, and then the slot goes back to other titles in the repertoire — for September the choice comes down to these two dates.