Play «Suối Linh Hồn» («Stream of Souls»)

   Horror at the Hong Van stage rarely relies on loud noises. In «Suối Linh Hồn» the thing that unsettles you is a mother who is afraid of her own child.

   In brief:

• — the current staging is the 2024 version directed by Le Nguyen Tuan Anh; the play first appeared in 2018;
• — the cast includes Tuan Dung, Le Loc, Tuan Anh, Bui Cong Danh, Minh Nga, Sao Mai, Cao Phuong Thuy, Truc Anh, Ho Minh Man, Mai Kim Lien and Hai Vot;
• — Vietnamese reviewers singled out the tight plotting, the late twists and the carefully rationed comic relief.

   The story sits inside the family of a Da Lat businessman. After their niece Thuy slips into a stream and drowns, his wife Nga carries the guilt; when their second daughter is born, postnatal depression takes hold and Nga begins to fear the baby, whose birthmark sits exactly where Thuy's did.

   This is psychological horror rather than jump-scare horror, and it is unusually direct about maternal mental health for a commercial stage. Performed in Vietnamese without surtitles.

   Tickets on Ticketbox.