Vietgone: A Thought Provoking Play With Laughs

It's billed as a love story, and not a war story.

But all is (un)fair in love and war.

I saw the play Vietgone by Qui Nguyen over the weekend at The Guthrie theater in Minneapolis. My hometown is Minneapolis but I left ten minutes after I turned legal (only a slight exaggeration) and haven't lived there since. Two of my siblings and both my parents still live in the area so I go back a couple times a year. The usual pilgrimage for me includes a trip to the Basilica of St. Mary, the Walker Art Center, or at very least the sculpture garden, F. Scott Fitzgerald's place in St. Paul, and The Guthrie.

For writers and other word people, few things are more satisfying than watching dialogue performed in a way that is thought-provoking, amusing, or -- bonus -- both.

Vietgone starts off with an actor playing the playwright telling the audience about the play and how it is a love story about his parents who met in a refugee camp in the USA after the fall of Saigon but that the play is definitely not about them -- wink-wink-- less said parents be offended. He also explains some quirks about the dialogue.

The characters who would in real life be speaking Vietnamese speak American-accented English. The American trying to speak Vietnamese speaks quirky broken English. And the Americans speaking English toss a word salad of American slang with much enthusiasm such as, "Heehaw hotdog Elvis fast car!" It's funny. It also turns the tables on the long history of American plays and movies that feature foreign characters speaking pidgin English making them sound dumb. They aren't dumb. They're speaking a second, third or even fourth language so take that, Babbel app!

Tong, played by Emjoy Gavino, and Quang, played by Hyunmin Rhee, are a drop dead gorgeous couple with some serious issues. Tong plays tough- don't-give-an-eff but she's only trying to protect her gooey heart. Quang is all '70s swagger but also just trying to hide his soft side. She's thrilled to escape Vietnam and start a new life as an American. He's only interested in returning to Vietnam ASAP to the wife and kids he left behind. Long story short, they fall in love and stay in the USA despite the fact that it isn't always the most welcoming place. Along the way, her meddling mom, his best friend, an American boyfriend, and lost family on both sides, help and hinder their budding relationship until eventually their hard shell (but seriously GORGEOUS) outer selves are cracked open to reveal their true selves. Love ensues.

They also break into song and rap along the way. At one point, tough guy Quang meets an American hippie who apologizes for US involvement in Vietnam and says "My brother was killed in Vietnam." Quang says he is sorry but then launches into a song that at first sounds pretty calloused. He says, essentially, "You lost a brother in Vietnam? So what! I lost my whole family. I lost my country!" Honestly, it was jarring to hear. I lost my oldest brother in Vietnam. I was thirteen years old at the time. He was only nineteen. But grief is not a competition. And as Quang continues to sing/rap, the bitterness of "so you think you've got it bad" gives way until you can hear and feel the broken sadness of his words.

The play ends with the pretend playwright back on stage interviewing his father, or trying to, as the older guy seems determined to keep things light and breezy with dad jokes that go over with the same groans in any culture. It's especially effective that the old man Quang speaks broken accented English and, in a way, is reduced to the American play-film stereotype.

But this time around, the audience knows better.

I ran into Quang AKA Hyunmin Rhee in the lobby and grabbed his arm like a lunatic, aged, fan-girl to rave about his performance. He was so gracious and acted like I wasn't at all nutso, so . . . good actor, good guy and (did I mention?) good looking!

Almost every time I've been to The Guthrie I've seen empty seats and I want to give Minneapolis-people a furious shake and say, "Do you have any idea what a treasure you have here?"

On the other hand, I love getting tickets so . . . carry on Minnesotans! I hear the Vikings are playing! The Twins! Hockey! Lutefisk! Ice fishing! Mall of America!

Nothing to see here, people, nothing to see.