Play «Phượng Hoàng Tái Sinh» (The Phoenix Reborn)

   A brand-new production from the Ho Chi Minh City drama company Nhà Hát Kịch Thanh Niên — a story nobody in the room has seen staged before, so you follow it exactly as everyone else does. If you have wanted to try Vietnamese spoken theatre live rather than on video, a new title is the easiest way in: there are no earlier seasons to catch up on.

   The play is written and directed by Hồng Ngọc. The cast is Tuấn Kiệt, Tạ Lâm, Thắng Tăng, Nhã Uyên, Vương Chí Nam, Ngọc Tâm, Long Lê, Mộng Huyền, Đường Nhi, Phúc Bằng, Thiện Luân, Nhật VIE, Tường Vy, Hà Trang and Quỳnh Như.

   The artwork puts the ensemble in two costume worlds at once — court robes and headdresses on one side, áo dài and contemporary clothes on the other — with a golden phoenix spreading its wings in the middle. The title, «Phượng Hoàng Tái Sinh», means the phoenix reborn.

   This is an evening for anyone curious about what the city drama stage sounds like right now: not a tourist show and not a concert, but an ordinary night of spoken theatre that a local audience books for itself.

   The company has no house of its own — the stage sits inside Nhà Thiếu Nhi TP.HCM, the city children culture house on Tú Xương street in the centre, a few minutes on foot from the Reunification Palace (Dinh Độc Lập). The grounds have several gates: the official address is 36 Lê Quý Đôn, while the address printed on tickets usually points to the Tú Xương gate — both lead to the same place.

   The play is performed in Vietnamese.

   Take a seat early and come to hear a story about starting over told from the beginning.