Tag Archives: Michael Phong Le

Lòng Mẹ

★★★★

VAULT Festival 2020

Lòng Mẹ

Lòng Mẹ

Pit – The Vaults

Reviewed – 3rd March 2020

★★★★

 

“This humour with subtextual glints of trauma was brilliantly realised and effortlessly portrayed”

 

As the title indicates, Lòng Mẹ translates from Vietnamese to English to mean ‘Mother’s Soul’. VanThanh Productions presented its titled theme gracefully with two very different stories, cathartically linked to recognise the power of ancestry and give insight into Vietnamese heritage.

As the audience were sitting down, Tuyen Do and Michael Phong Le sat on the minamilistic set and called on the audience, welcoming them in and asking them to sit down, all the while speaking in thick Vietnamese accents. Comments such as ‘You sir, you so handsome, come sit at the front’ induced humour from the stereotype and set a light hearted tone in the theatre. This quality was emulated throughout the production, acting as a powerful juxtaposition to the heart-breaking stories which unfolded.

Tuyen Do’s story was told through a masterclass in voice acting. Do seamlessly glided from a thick Vietnamese accent to a London accent as she portrayed both herself and her mother simultaneously in conversation. This allowed for a strong, punchy insight to her struggle to relate to her mother due to growing up with two opposing cultures at the same time. As she told the story of this relationship, beautiful and traumatising anecdotes including the hiding of gold bars in dead chickens, so that they might be able to trade on the black market during the Vietnam war, were both awe inspiring and funny. But the mood was quickly turned when we are told of her family’s citizenship being stripped due to fighting on the American side during the Vietnam war. This humour with subtextual glints of trauma was brilliantly realised and effortlessly portrayed.

Phong Le’s story was similar to Do’s in that it focused on the struggle of relating to a different generation, brought up during a very different time. However, Do’s story fixated more prominently on the ‘constant internal conflict’ of his coming to terms with his Vietnamese heritage, when he was brought up in the contrasting culture of the UK countryside. Phong Le’s performance was honest and delivered with a gentleness which worked beautifully. His ability to portray himself as a small child, through to being an adolescent and then an adult worked brilliantly as he told a story about his mother going to prison and his own questioning surrounding the incident with a raw innocence.

Mingyu Lin’s direction allowed the pair to transition between stories with simple dance sequences, this seemed a little unnecessary as an attempt to create a link between the two and a distraction from the honest conversations each performer gave. However, Lin’s direction shone through Phong Le’s performance; as he clutched a Rubik’s cube throughout the show, highlighting his naivety to his surroundings; it was clear that Lin’s attention to detail was meticulous here and that a great deal of thought had gone into it.

The production as a whole was awe inspiring, only let down by the unnecessary measures taken to link performances which would have stood strong and linked easily without them.

 

Reviewed by Mimi Monteith

 

 

VAULT Festival 2020

 

 

Click here to see all our reviews from VAULT Festival 2020

 

Summer Rolls
★★★½

Park Theatre

Summer Rolls

Summer Rolls

Park Theatre

Reviewed – 24th June 2019

★★★½

 

“a seminal play about family, racism and history, brought to life by vivid and genuine performances across the cast”

 

Summer Rolls is the first British-Vietnamese play to be staged in the UK, and Park Theatre is its home. Written by Tuyen Do, the play explores racism, the impact of war, culture and community, through the lens of a single family across several decades. Mai’s parents and older brother escaped war-torn Vietnam at a time when Mai was too young to remember. Brought up in the UK, Mai resists the traditional values of her parents that tell her how should behave, what she should become and who she should marry. But she documents the shadows of her family’s scars and secrets – her father sleepwalking at night for example – through her camera, learning her history in stills. Performed across the Vietnamese and English languages, this is a play about the collision of two cultures.

The set by Moi Tran presents a traditional Vietnamese home, a kitchen station with chopsticks and fish sauce, two sewing machines, a radio that brings the politics of the outside world in. Mai and her black boyfriend seem to exist in contrast to this space, a reminder of the London culture that the family are living within.

The staging sometimes lets down the play, closing off the conversations to most of the audience. From a writing perspective, there is sometimes a clumsiness around delivery of the various revelations that shape the play, too sudden or conversely predictable. As a whole, the story has a fragmented feel to it, and the scenes do not move well between each other, lacking fluency at points. However the strength of individual scenes, and the characters and relationship created within them, still make this a very enjoyable evening.

Mai’s mother is sharp, funny and dedicated to her children. She is played in a standout performance by Linh-Dan Pham. Anna Nguyen and Keon Martial-Phillip are also particularly strong as the young couple, exploring London adolescence, sex and alcohol and art. The relationships between the characters feel consistently genuine, complex and tender.

This is a seminal play about family, racism and history, brought to life by vivid and genuine performances across the cast.

 

Reviewed by Amelia Brown

Photography by Danté Kim

 

Summer Rolls

Park Theatre until 13th July

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
Rosenbaum’s Rescue | ★★★★★ | January 2019
The Dame | ★★★★ | January 2019
Gently Down The Stream | ★★★★★ | February 2019
My Dad’s Gap Year | ★★½ | February 2019
Cry Havoc | ★★ | March 2019
The Life I Lead | ★★★ | March 2019
We’re Staying Right Here | ★★★★ | March 2019
Hell Yes I’m Tough Enough | ★★½ | April 2019
Intra Muros | | April 2019
Napoli, Brooklyn | ★★★★ | June 2019

 

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