The Twelve Midwives - a comedy on stage, a wish in life...

If going to see a play can be compared with going out to dine, we always prefer a good place with a fine dinning experience, we should also find a nice theatre with an interesting play. But I doubt Saigon could offer generously that to us.
It's hard to remember when was my first time in Saigon's theatre. Long, long ago. Over the past decade, the theatre life here changed a lot - more activities, more freedom. These days people seems prefer the comedy, easy laugh. Very popular stand-up comedy here, we call it "tấu hài". Maybe I'm from another generation, so it's not funny for me to see "tấu hài" these days, I still can laugh but this laugh is far from good.

Tonight I'm going with a big fan of play, my nephew, to see a famous "The Twelve Midwives" (12 Bà Mụ). According to him, it's not easy to get tickets to this show.

             Young fan posed in front of the official poster of "The 12 Midwives" 

When I hear about "The 12 Midwives", I guess it would be a comedy with many simple good laugh in a purely "Saigon style". I say Saigon because we still have "Hanoi style" which is quite different. And my guess was right! 

            The 12 Midwives and Thành Lộc - a famous actor in a role of "the Oldest Midwife" 

Quite some time ago, when I first joined a project to build a film studio in Bình Dương, it was a cooperation with a leading Korean TV studio in Seoul. The project regretfully led us almost to nothing. Nothing was built while a lot of investments has been wasted. I also got some "life-time" experience, but on the other side, I learnt a lot and one of lessons I got was Vietnam theatre or film studio so so so eager for good scripts.

             An actress in a role of Midwife rose to fame after her first role in a Korean-styled TV series. 

I remember our investors had to pay 100,000 USD for an old script to a famous Korean woman-scenarist (to be honest, I have no idea how famous was that woman but judging by the way people from that Korean TV studio treated her, so my guess was YES, she's a powerful person in their life!)

          The actress on the left corner was trained as ballerina in Russia but ended up as drama queen. 

Back to our Twelve Midwives, I have to say there was a boring moment because I couldn't follow the story details while I was busy with my camera and at the same time kept watching the security guy that warned me not to take photos! But in general it would be an interesting event for curious guys like me and at the same time - a new old taste in our cultural life in Saigon.

              Thành Lộc - a multi-faced talent from a big traditional actor's family. 

The Twelve Midwives is likely a combination of many genres, I can see little bit of everything: from comedy to stand-up comedy, from music hall to drama. As leading actor, Thành Lộc dominated the stage with his charm, he made the audience laugh with funny, dirty, nonsense conversations.

               Hữu Châu - another famous actor, mostly in a cruel role... 

The good thing about this play is the producer was able to gather a very good team of 12 Midwives, they all act together very smoothly, a good throw-and-catch conversation between them, but I may wish if Thành Lộc could speak a bit less and give the chance to his younger Midwives to act more.

              Young actor in chains is a bet between the Twelve Midwives and other mythic characters . 

The bad thing is the tie-up in the story was not very clear to me and the bet between the two Chinese mythic characters - Nam Tào and Bắc Đẩu (according to the Chinese myth, these two decide the dates when we appear in this world and disappear from it!) with The Twelve Midwives.
The play lasts for almost three hours and the story quickly ended up with the escape of the young man and left the bet between The Twelve Midwives and the two Chinese mythic Nam Tào & Bắc Đẩu unanswered: who is a winner in this bet?

The theatre life in Saigon is getting richer, the actor's life is also getting better but I feel sorry about the facilities. Until now Saigon hardly has a good place for the performing arts. I do wish one day we can go to a real good place to enjoy a real good show.