Play «Tấm Cám Đại Chiến!» (The Great Tam–Cam Battle)

   Tấm, the cruel stepmother, the little fish and the golden apple — the folk tale every Vietnamese child knows, pushed on the Lê Thánh Tôn stage into an open «battle» where the familiar characters bicker, grab and expose one another in front of the audience.

   Show times: 13 September 18:00–21:00, 17 September 19:30–22:30.

   The script is by Bảo Ngọc and Hùng Lâm, who also directs; the set is by Lê Văn Định and the production is led by Huỳnh Anh Tuấn. The cast is a roll-call of IDECAF regulars: Đình Toàn, Đại Nghĩa, Tuyền Mập, Mỹ Duyên, Hòa Hiệp, Bạch Long, Trịnh Minh Dũng, Đông Hải, Tâm Anh, Mai Phượng, Thiên Trang, Cẩm Hò and Việt Trang, joined by the Nụ Cười children's company.

   Worth knowing before you book:

• — The theatre puts its evenings on sale in short blocks; two dates are open now
• — Two seating grades are sold, VIP and Regular, service fee included
• — The house does not admit anyone under 12 — this is the fairy tale told for grown-ups

   The next performance is at 19:30, 3 September 2026, a Thursday. The play then returns once more on Sunday, 13 September 2026, but earlier — at 18:00. Nothing beyond that is open yet: the theatre releases its dates in short blocks and announces the following ones separately.

   Tấm Cám is Vietnam's Cinderella, and knowing the outline helps: the play spends most of its energy sending it up. The performance is in Vietnamese with no subtitles and the comedy is dialogue-driven, so it rewards some language.

   IDECAF opened in September 1997 and by the end of 2016 had staged more than 100 plays for adults and 29 editions of its «Ngày xửa… ngày xưa» children's series — this is the most familiar address in Saigon for spoken theatre.

   The theatre sits in the old District 1, a few minutes on foot from the Nguyễn Huệ walking street.