Vietgone

By: Qui Nguyen

Narrated by: Will Dao, Desiree Mee Jung, Greg Watanabe, Paul Yen, Jeena Yi

Saigon has fallen, and two Vietnamese refugees meet in an Arkansas relocation camp before setting out on a rip-roaring road trip across America. Qui Nguyen tells the hilarious and only slightly not-true version of how his parents met and built a life for themselves in a new land. Recorded before a live audience at the UCLA James Bridges Theater in February 2020.

Director: Tim Dang
Original Music by Shane Rettig
Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg
Greg Watanabe: Playwright, Giai, Bobby, Captain Chambers, Hippie Dude
Paul Yen: Quang
Jeena Yi: Tong
Desirée Mee Jung: Asian Girl, American Girl, Thu, Huong, Translator, Flower Girl, Redneck Biker Will Dao: Asian Guy, American Guy, Nhan, Khue
Associate Artistic Director: Anna Lyse Erikson
Recording Engineer and Sound Designer: Mark Holden.for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood
Senior Radio Producer: Ronn Lipkin
Foley Artist: Jeff Gardner
Production Manager: Erica R. Christensen
Mixing Engineer: Charles Carroll
Editor: Mitchell Lindskoog

©2016 Qui Nguyen (P)2020 L.A. Theatre Works

A Non-Stop Potty Humor, F Word Galore Fest

First let me say that I appreciate what the playwright is doing here in his innovative, experiential approach to depicting what his parents encountered as Vietnamese refugees. And I also like how he addresses racism by having the white American actors sound idiotic the way that American films have portrayed Asian actors in the past. However this play is the most disgustingly bathroom humor, crude, F-word packed play I have ever experienced. I have nothing against profanity but the F word is literally every noun, adjective and verb. After awhile, it gets boring and very predictable. And then add on, the nonstop juvenile bathroom humor about bodily functions and the generic rap music that is like a parody of bad rap music. And then in the last ten minutes , there is a conversation between the playwright with his father that has some honest and interesting, if not politically controversial, dialogue. But it just seems tacked on and has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the play. It's like he was just too lazy to weave it into the main storyline. I look forward to the day when plays don't have to be as disgusting as a broken toilet in a gas station bathroom to be considered edgy.