Like the actors that portray them, the characters of SAIGON are French, Vietnamese, or French of Vietnamese descent. Whatever their age, they share landscapes, faces, songs, and a language that, for some of them, no longer exist but in their memories. The play takes place in a location subject to the same nostalgia : a restaurant stuck in a space-time somewhere between the France of today and the Saigon of the ’50s, where the characters have become used to bumping into one another, meeting for lunch, singing, drinking, dancing, loving, and trying to celebrate life in spite of everything. The result of a long work of immersion in both France and Vietnam, this polyphonic story invents the voices of men and women marked by history and geography
Creation on La Comédie de Valence for the festival Ambivalence(s) and at 71st Festival d’Avignon / Gymnase du Lycée Aubanel
CREATION 2017
La Comédie de Valence, festival Ambivalence(s)
71e Festival d’Avignon
TOUR 2022/2023
from 12 to 22 oct. — Les Gémeaux, Sceaux
26 & 27 May — Festival De Singel, Anvers
TOUR 2021/2022
from 14 to 16 April — Domaine d’O – Montpellier
from 22 to 24 April —Teatro Nacional Dona Maria II– Lisbonne
Text Caroline Guiela Nguyen with the whole artistic team
With Caroline Arrouas, Dan Artus, Adeline Guillot, Thi Truc Ly Huynh, Hoàng Son Lê, Phú Hau Nguyen, My Chau Nguyen thi, Pierric Plathier, Thi Thanh Thu Tô, Anh Tran Nghia, Hiep Tran Nghia
Director Caroline Guiela Nguyen
Artistic Collaborator Claire Calvi
Set Design Alice Duchange
Costume Design Benjamin Moreau
Light design Jérémie Papin
Sound design Antoine Richard
Original music composed by Teddy Gauliat-Pitois
Dramaturgy and overtitles Jérémie Scheidler, Manon Worms
Dramaturgy trainee Hugo Soubise
Translation Duc Duy Nguyen, Thi Thanh Thu Tô
Costume-makers Aude Bretagne, Dominique Fournier, Barbara Mornet, Frédérique Payot, Pascale Barré
Wigs and make-up Christelle Paillard
Sound design assistant and sound operator Orane Duclos
Lighting Operator Sébastien Lemarchand
Stage manager at the creation Jérôme Masson
Administration, production Juliette Kramer, Elsa Hummel-Zongo
Length 3h15 (with intermission)
Overtitles in French and Vietnamese overtitled in French
Photographies Jean-Louis Fernandez
Production les Hommes Approximatifs, La Comédie de Valence, CDN Drôme-Ardèche
Coproducers Odéon, théâtre de l’Europe, MC2: Grenoble, Festival d’Avignon, CDN de Normandie-Rouen, Théâtre national de Strasbourg, Centre dramatique national de Tours – Théâtre Olympia, Comédie de Reims – CDN, Théâtre National Bretagne – Centre européen théâtral et chorégraphique, Théâtre du Beauvaisis – Scène nationale de l’Oise en préfiguration, Théâtre de La Croix-Rousse-Lyon
With the financial support of Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Conseil départemental de la Drôme, Institut Français (Théâtre Export program)
With the kind support of Institut Français du Vietnam, Université de Théâtre et de Cinéma de Hô Chi Minh-Ville anfd of La Chartreuse, Villeneuve lez Avignon – Centre national des écritures du spectacle The text is laureate to the Commission nationale d’aide à la création de textes dramatiques – ARTCENA
With the artistic participation from Jeune théâtre national.
Construction of the decor in the workshops of Odéon, théâtre de l’Europe.
Write to me. Do you dream of me? Do you dream of Vietnam? Do you sleep well? I’m still working in the restaurant. My darling, how I miss you. I will love you for the rest of my days.
SAIGON. Caroline Guiela Nguyen