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Reviews
July 9, 2002

The Asian Reporter, V12, #28

Drama inside drama—A Dream in Hanoi
—Polo

I feel honored by a chance to write this film review. Many Oregon Asians have been associated with Artists Repertory Theater of Portland (ART), including Asian Family Center’s Nathan Thuan Nguyen, Lutheran Family Services’ Salah Ansary, Salem author Geronimo Tagatac, and myself.

I am humbled by the coincidence of this film’s making, in Vietnam, coincident with many of us party-predators in Saigon, eating and drinking to excess with President and Mrs. Clinton, with Japanese American Secretary of Commerce Norman Mineta, during that brief dreamy episode when The White House turned rainbow.

Sometimes, history turns personal—usually our participation is not pretty, occasionally we take a little pride. Mirroring precious life, Director Tom Weidlinger’s A Dream in Hanoi faithfully plays out both, both our tears and our joy.

A Dream in Hanoi must be seen in the company of big Westerners or, if you’ve got plenty of that, grab some grinning Asians. Watch this film together. Oh, the aggravation we have, for each other. Ayoh, the wonder we may know, when we persist with a little patience and a Home Depot loadful of respect.

A Dream in Hanoi is a documentary following the political, the cross-cultural, and the collaborative creative, work it took to produce and deliver performances of 16th-century English playwright William Shakespeare’s theater classic, A Midsummer Nights Dream.

Doan Hoang Giang, co-director of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Direction and talent for their five year project was drawn from Portland’s Artists Repertory Theater and Vietnam’s Central Dramatic Company (Nha Hat Kicc Viet Nam). Director Weidlinger wanted the film to follow the parties much hoped-for collaboration between nations that have shared some bad history, and cultures that couldn’t be more contrasting. Grand goals.

Reciprocity crumbles, respect tumbles.

The probability of face-crushing, career crashing doom peaks when the play’s actors, joint directors, producers, and CP political handlers learn opening night at Hanoi’s National Opera House will be attended by United States President William Jefferson Clinton.

Plenty of tears later—tears of frustration and anger and accomplishment—some commonality gets established, some terrific performances are delivered. Deep deep bows, each side returns to its respective corner. No happy endings here, just intense experience. Love and war.

A Dream in Hanoi made its world debut in Hanoi and Saigon in March 2002. The film was praised by government approved press, Pioneer Newspaper (Tien Phong, 31 March 2002) and Labor Weekend (Lao Don, 7 April 2002). Said Tien Phong “... there is an inevitable truth, a truth that, at the end, enables audience to see that the Vietnamese and American artists’ parting tears are not ‘stage tears,’ nor the tears of dream, but tears of deep feeling.”

A Dream in Hanoi will made its U.S. debut at the Seattle International Film Festival last month.

Editor’s note: The Asian Reporter apologizes in advance to Viet language readers for omitting proper accent and stress marks from our text. No disrespect is intended. We are working on developing this font capacity.