[New Backstage] Why are We Here?
20:00, 25, 26 & 27 Apr 2025
Manzi Exhibition Space
No. 2 ngõ Hàng Bún, Ba Đình, Hà Nội
Registration link
From the organizer:
Manzi, XplusX Studio and the Goethe-Institut Hanoi cordially invite you to the next performance series of Tân Hậu Trường – the latest original production by Thăng Long Film Collective.
Duration: 120 mins
Language: Vietnamese
Artist contribution: 350.000VNĐ/person
+ 300.000VNĐ applied for students & early bird registrations before 18 April
+ Group discount: 250.000VNĐ/person (for groups of 5 or more)
“Why Are We Here?” is a play written and directed by Duy Vu, inspired by the experience of members of Xí nghiệp điện ảnh Thăng Long’s Acting Class.
Four young actors gather in an apartment to wait for their director. They’ve just received a new screenplay with no instructions on how to rehearse it. As time passes, they read through the lines, discuss their recent lives, and begin practicing the scenes together. They ask, both in their own and their characters’ voices, why they are here.
“PHUONG: Five and a half people die for every thousand people in Vietnam each year. That’s half a million out of 100 million.
PHUC: One person dies from disease. Someone dies of old age. Someone dies merely because they were born. When one dies, the living declare that they have attained nirvana. Heaven. The beyond. Thus they managed to break out of the cycle.
PHUONG: Who are they? The different ones. But bearing the same name.
PHUC: One bids farewell to their living paradise. Then dies into nothingness.”
“Why Are We Here?” may be an unanswerable question, but it must be asked repeatedly. To continue wondering, questioning ourselves and the world, and simply surviving. In Between Life and Death, Gāo Xíngjiàn (高行健) once describe in Between Life and Death: This world is visible… this world is obscure… this world is like the wind… this world is like a dream… this world is crude… this world is noisy…
Xí nghiệp điện ảnh Thăng Long founded in 2017, first launched as a personal blog by filmmaker Duy Vu recording a journey of self-taught filmmaking in Hanoi. Since then, it has grown into a creative collective: a space for independent directors and actors and a community for cinema lovers in Hanoi.
Tân Hậu Trường (2024 – 2025) is a non-profit initiative curated by XplusX Studio, supported by the Goethe-Institut Hà Nội and Manzi Art Space. The project aims to promote new voices in contemporary performing arts and theatre in Vietnam. All audience contributions will assist in covering organizing costs and supporting the artists.
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