📆 Shows running between Friday, August 9th – Saturday, August 24th
🎟 Tickets start at $10 | Reserve seats here
📍 Theatre Off Jackson: 409 7th Ave S, Seattle
I’ve used this Ticket space to praise the work of Vietnamese-American writer Qui Nguyen before and I’m not stopping anytime soon. It’s deceptively difficult to pull off his brand of storytelling: open-hearted, brashly political work shot out of a crowd-pleasing, genre-happy, pop culture cannon. She Kills Monsters is his most-produced play, but Vietgone is what made me fall for him.
Billed as an “only slightly not-true” story, Vietgone is a time-jumping comedy centered on Nguyen’s parents, who met at an Arkansas relocation camp after fleeing Saigon, then set out on a motorcycle to discover their newly adopted country. Part romance, part road trip, part kung fu actioner, part rap song cycle, it’s a perfect choice as a co-production between the Pork Filled Players and SIS Productions.
“Our shows center Asian American relationships shared with a sense of humor to inspire people of all races to see Asian Americans through a human, rather than stereotypical lens,” said SIS’ Kathy Hsieh. “When most people think of the Vietnam War or immigrants and refugees, it’s pretty grim and trauma-filled. Vietgone playfully flips this, encouraging us to relook at our parents and first-generation refugees through new eyes. They are hip, hot, and human. The play inspires us to see our parents for who they really are, rather than through the stereotypes America has created of them.”
It’s astonishing work. Get ya butt to Theatre Off Jackson.
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