Screening of “A DREAM IN HANOI”

Thu 07 Jun 2012, 7 pm
Cinematheque

From Cinematheque:
You are invited to a special screening of A DREAM IN HANOI directed by Tom Weidlinger. Dr. Lorelle Browning said the subject of this fascinating documentary is visiting Hanoi, and he will join us for Q&A/discussion after the screening, along with Doan Chau, former head of Vietnam‚s National Dramatic Theater.
About A DREAM IN HANOI

Twelve years ago, Dr Lorelle Browning – a professor at Pacific University in Portland, Oregon – brought an American theatre company to Hanoi to stage a bi-lingual, bi-cultural production of Shakespeare’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, together with actors and a director from the National Theatre of Vietnam. The entire project was the subject of a fascinating and entertaining full-length documentary film, produced by San Francisco filmmaker Tom Weidlinger, entitled A DREAM IN HANOI.

Review by Jonathan Curiel, San Francisco Chronicle

“On paper, it seemed like an ideal arrangement: Take a theater company from Portland, Ore., send it to Hanoi in the fall of 2000 and have it collaborate with a renowned Vietnamese theater company on one of Shakespeare’s most illuminating plays, “A Midsummmer Night’s Dream.”

The result, as captured by documentarian Tom Weidlinger, was anything but smooth. In A DREAM IN HANOI, egos clash, cultural misunderstandings are common, and last-minute obstacles from the Vietnamese government threaten to derail a performance that had started out with such high hope.

American Shakespeare scholar Lorelle Browning, who spent five years arranging the co-production, is reduced to tears by the artistic confrontations that emerge in Hanoi, but there are epiphanies, too. Walking and motorbiking around Vietnam’s capital reveals a culture that is rich in sounds, sights and smells. A Vietnamese actress goes against her country’s tradition and loves displaying more affection on stage.

Weidlinger was in the right place at the right time. Who could have predicted that then-President Clinton would send a representative to rehearsals to gauge whether he should attend opening night? The visit adds a new layer of tension to the production — a tension that never lets up until the end of A DREAM IN HANOI, Narrated by F. Murray Abraham, this documentary is a treat to behold.

Language: English and Vietnamese with English subtitles

For reservations: phone (04) 3936 2648 from 14:00 to 21:00.