Arts Centre Melbourne presents
EVENT PASSED
Theatre
·
France / Vietnam
When director Caroline Guiela Nguyen's SAIGON premiered at Avignon Festival in 2017, the deeply moving family saga of exile and longing quickly became the hottest ticket at the world's largest theatre festival.
Staged in a restaurant, the story swings between Saigon in 1956, as French colonialists leave Vietnam, and Paris in 1996, when Vietnamese exiles started returning to their homeland. It is a searing and evocative portrait of lives uprooted and homes remade, with a cast of 11 characters whose paths trace lines across history and space.
Compared to Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love, SAIGON is both epic in scale and heart-rending in its intimacy – it is a rare work of universal theatre that speaks across cultures. Its young French-Vietnamese director spent two years gathering stories in Paris and Saigon to create this compelling drama, which has provoked audiences the world over into tearful standing ovations. Exclusive to Asia TOPA, you won’t want to miss this bittersweet tale of love, loss and reunion.
Download the SAIGON program
