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SAIGON, by Caroline Guiela Nguyen: A Screening Introduced by the Director
18 November 2024, 6:15 pm–9:45 pm
Join us for a special screening of "SAIGON" by Caroline Guiela Nguyen, where the director will introduce the film in person!
Event Information
Open to
- All
Availability
- Yes
Organiser
-
Dr Macs Smith
Location
-
UCL Cinema AuditoriumOne Pool StreetLondonE20 2AFUnited Kingdom
Set in a restaurant that manages to exist in both 1950's Vietnam and the France of today, this play tells the stories of Vietnamese, French, and French-Vietnamese characters whose lives were altered by colonialism and war. They are the stories of couples, friends, and families held together by tears, mourning, memories, and a determination to go on living. To write this play, Caroline Guiela Nguyen carried out lengthy workshops in France and Vietnam, collecting stories, photos, and documents. Disappointed not to find Vietnamese speakers at auditions, she went in search of amateur performers and established an exchange with an acting school in Vietnam to fill what had been a void in onstage representation. Since its premiere in 2017, the play has been performed in theatres around the world, but never in the UK.
Please join us for a screening of a filmed version of the play, which will be introduced by Caroline Guiela Nguyen. The play is in a mix of French and Vietnamese. The film will have English subtitles, and the play will be introduced in French. Tickets are free, but please book through Eventbrite.
Photo credit: Manuel Braun
About the Speakers
Caroline Guiela Nguyen
Director at National Theatre of Strasbourg
Caroline Guiela Nguyen is the director of the National Theatre of Strasbourg in France and its school. She is a founding member of the theatre production company, Les Hommes Approximatifs. Her most recent play, LACRIMA, was published by Actes Sud in 2024.
Dr Macs Smith
Lecturer at UCL
Dr Macs Smith is a Lecturer in French and Francophone Culture in SELCS. His current research focuses on rehearsal practices in contemporary French theatre. His first book, Paris and the Parasite (MIT Press 2021), explored urban counterculture and forms of protest through the lens of Michel Serres's theorisation of parasitism.
More about Dr Macs Smith