KVT – Long Bien Crazies and BLOOD on the SIDEWALKS

KVT’s tongue is a bit sharper this time in these reports of visits to the cinema and the theater.

What an extra-ordinary week. The European Music Festival at the Youth Theatre was extra-ordinarily brilliant and the jazz and blues vibes blowing through my mind have almost put me into a latent soporific mood of cat like contentment, so much so that I have to really force myself to bare my claws.

Long Bien Crazies

The Danish documentary about a month long, un-opinionated observation of the Long Bien Bridge I’ve seen before and thought it a really brilliant piece of art, not only a superb piece of documentary filmmaking. So when a friend gave me a transcript of the audience question time after the showing at the cinematheque last week I was flabbergasted. Some people wanted a revisionist type film with all gritty reality removed; others were disappointed that the flower market wasn’t featured; some seemed to think that it didn’t portray enough of modern Hanoi; others seemed to want more emphasis on the grand old colonial times …which were never grand for most locals. To me it seems that a lot of people need to take their blinkers off, put away the rose tints, get out of the chauffer drivens and start to look around real Hanoi….no, my dears, not West Lake or Ha Hoi or, god forbid, Ciputra….go for a walk along the turgid alleys and byways where the majority of the workers live. See the poverty, the unhygienic conditions, the maltreatment of females…..Then see the documentary again and realize its brilliance.

BLOOD on the SIDEWALKS

I was forced to miss a night of the Europeans because I promised a relative of a friend of a cast member of Blood Brothers that I’d go along and see her in it.

Now I know a lot of you will say that I should only say nice things because after all they’re only amateurs trying their hardest, but after all the hard sell, I believe they deserve a bit of an opinionated crit and I hope a few of you will challenge my findings.

Blood Brothers was written in 1981 as a school musical. With adaptations it transferred (a bit reminiscent of Joseph and His Technicolor Dreamcoat) to the West End where it’s played to a cult following for the past 20 odd years.

The Hanoi production was much more school play than West End. Everyone in the cast had a good time and no-one had to bother with that difficult Liverpudlian accent. It was a tad turgid in length and I was so glad when the final stirring song was dramatically concluded and I could clap and leave.

Now I’ve never been to a HITS show before to compare previous standards but I really do think that a play has to be chosen to fit the abilities of the performers, and this one decidedly wasn’t.

But… the orchestra was really good, restrained and professional… Michael Hoy, the narrator and devil’s advocate stole the show with great presence and voice. Kate Cameron as Mam has a brilliant voice and was a down to earth main lead with a strong Aussie accent. I’d love to see David Cameron in a role that would allow him to play an adult.

The most perplexing aspect of the production for me was why on earth the stage crew, who are supposed to be invisible, had a BIG white CREW printed across their backs. Or perhaps I was a bit more perplexed by the director’s insistence of putting Vietnamese colloquialisms into the script.

But congratulations all and keep on going. With so many young up and comings I could envisage a spunky punky type show with lots of energetic dance….just hope for a good choreographer.