Play «Lệ Chi Viên» (The Lychee Garden)

   One of the darkest miscarriages of justice in Vietnamese history gets a full staging here: the execution of the scholar-statesman Nguyen Trai (Nguyễn Trãi) and three generations of his family after a king died in a lychee garden. The play is less interested in the verdict than in how the machinery of court power got there.

   This is the 2025 rebuild of Bí mật vườn Lệ Chi, written by the late Hoang Huu Dan (Hoàng Hữu Đản). The original ran from 2000 under People's Artist Thanh Loc (Thành Lộc), passed 70 performances and took three Mai Vàng awards in 2007. Quang Thao (Quang Thảo) both adapted and directed the new version and plays Nguyen Trai himself.

   Who plays whom:

• — Thanh Thuy (Thanh Thủy) — consort Nguyen Thi Anh (Nguyễn Thị Anh), a role she has held for over twenty years
• — Hoang Trinh (Hoàng Trinh) — Nguyen Thi Lo (Nguyễn Thị Lộ)
• — Dai Nghia (Đại Nghĩa) — the eunuch Ta Thanh (Tạ Thanh)
• — Hong Anh (Hồng Ánh) — Ngo Thi Ngoc Dao (Ngô Thị Ngọc Dao)
• — Dinh Toan (Đình Toàn) — kings Le Thai Tong and Le Thanh Tong

   The company travelled north to Bắc Ninh and Hải Dương to check sources and rework costume, headdress and set against fifteenth-century record. The production belongs to IDECAF's Sân khấu Sử Việt học đường strand, which stages Vietnamese history for school audiences.

   One practical point that trips people up: this performance is not at IDECAF's own house on Lê Thánh Tôn. It plays at the city Children's Palace stage on Tú Xương, about ten minutes by car from the cathedral, so check the address before you set off.

   If you live here and have only ever met Nguyen Trai as a street name, this is the fastest way to understand why the name is everywhere. Two seating tiers, VIP and Regular, differ by position; book through the event page on ticketbox.vn.

   The play is performed in Vietnamese, and the story is dense with court intrigue — reading up on the Lệ Chi Viên case beforehand will repay you.

   Take the evening as a history lesson that argues back.