Threaded Order Chronological Order
| This production considered itself a correction of the Vietnamese point of view; discuss | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 09:29 pm EST 01/14/18 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 09:28 pm EST 01/14/18 | |
| In reply to: Miss Saigon (spoilers) - mikem 10:13 am EST 01/13/18 | |
|
|
|
| Playbill put this out today. It's interesting to me that many of the points raised here are about redefining motivation and goals for the characters. But do they land with the audience? This one stood out, from Devin Ilaw, who played Thuy: “I just went to Vietnam to do research,” he explains, “and learned a lot about the culture, and the strength and love that people there have for their country. People often ask me, ‘What’s it like playing the bad guy?’ I am not a villain, that’s the important thing about Thuy. I had a great conversation with Bob Avian, the original choreographer on the show. He said to me, ‘I really love how you play him like a hero.’ I never thought of it that way, but that’s how you have to think of it. Thuy is just trying to bring honor to his culture, country, and family—and that’s what we’re trying to do in this production—to showcase the culture of Vietnam and to show them honor.” I saw this production, as noted below, and appreciated much of the work done to remint its story with more genuine understanding of Vietnam. But I certainly didn't think this Thuy POV informs the storytelling. If anyone in the audience felt they saw this, please share. I see the sequence through the prism of gender, and watching Noblezada face such an obstacle is so wrenching. The idea of cultural identity in Thuy does not surface. He's terrifying, and provokes her self-defense. That remains our take away: we watch, and want her to kill him. |
|
| Link | How This Miss Saigon Honors the Vietnamese Perspective |
| reply to this message | |
| re: This production considered itself a correction of the Vietnamese point of view; discuss | |
| Posted by: mikem 10:39 am EST 01/16/18 | |
| In reply to: This production considered itself a correction of the Vietnamese point of view; discuss - Delvino 09:28 pm EST 01/14/18 | |
|
|
|
| I agree that this production does not transmit any sense of what Vietnam or Vietnamese culture is like. I think Ilaw may be trying to say the truism that no villain thinks he's a villain. Thuy thinks he's doing the right thing. If Ilaw plays the character as a villain, he's playing it wrong. I saw an interview with Boublil and Schonberg where they said that the "Vietnamese" during the marriage scene doesn't make any sense, but no one told them that for 25 years until this revival was rehearsing in London. They corrected it for this production. It says something about the bubble that we can sometimes live in. |
|
| reply to this message |
Time to render: 0.008011 seconds.