The crabs crawl out of their sand dunes, following the conspiratorial moonlight. Deadly claws projected, they’re ready to crush the pitch darkness into pieces. Just like the valiant creatures they impersonate, the artists in AO Show are ready to remove the bleak, war-stricken makeup Vietnam has worn for centuries with their theatrical spectaculars.

AO Show- Sparkler in the dark Words Nguyen Hoang Vu

Blitz Magazine Issue 4 71

While the international fever for his debut show Lang Toi (My Village) hadn’t cooled down yet, last June director Tuan Le went on to introduce his second production: AO Show.Deploying the narrative capability of choreography,this time the director wants to tell the world an engrossing story about Vietnamese fishermenand the metamorphosis they’ve undergone.

At first, I was afraid AO Show would fall into the trap of this formula: war plus ao dai plus grazing buffalo in a paddy field equal so-called Vietnam’s essence. So I dragged myself to the show only to please my fellow Couchsurfer, whose jaw would drop at the tritest “dogs learning math” or “gibbons riding bicycle” circus stunts on earth.

Ironclad though my prejudices were, they all evaporated at the Saigon Opera House. Clashing with the neo-classical pillars of this majestic building, the larger-than-life bam boo at the entrance heralds a string of juxtaposed imageries on stage.

As the curtain is raised, the sonorous flute notes cut open the motorbike horn sound, sailing me to a fishing village of the Southern coast of Vietnam. There, the splendor of everyday labor sparkles with the morale of the villagers, who are celebrating yet another working day.

I couldn’t stop my eyeballs from rolling back and forth the highly-strung acrobatic acts, which accentuated the artists’ graceful body curves. Through the prism of art, even the most ordinary fishing tools can reproduce mind-blowing imageries. The rattan baskets, for example, constantly transform into the moon-led dunes, the crab carapaces, and then the cozy nests for lovebirds – these enchantments injected my curiosity muscles with a dose of imagination. And the surreal gymnastics of a boneless acrobat in the following scene simply stretched this sensation tenfold.Tuan Le’s Cirque du Soleil background leaves a vivid mark on the second half of the show as the fishermen break away from their hometown. The street artists’ parkour performance to the medley of dan tranh (bamboo percussion) and dan nhi (two-string guitars) made me wonder how come these versatile traditional instruments had shrunk into oblivion. I guess the director must have struggled to sail his boat through the waves of skeptical frowns be fore he blazes a trail in such “cultural matchmaking”.

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Bumpy bus rides, ding-dong streetmasseurs, and bittersweet dorm stories – together these slices of life craft an authentic mosaic that every Saigonese, natives and expats alike, can see themselves a very part of…

Throughout 60 minutes, the artists take the audience to a poetical adventure not only through time and space, but also across the whole gamut of emotions. The show would, otherwise, become a mind feast if only the narrative structure was more graspable and the artists put more effort in their facial expression. Although the pair of diamond tickets cost me an arm and a leg, what I got in return was by far worth it. What does the name AO really mean if not an exclamation of amazement?

For further information, visit: www.facebook.com/saigon.AOshow?ref=tsfref=tswww.aoshowsaigon.com/en

Blitz Magazine Issue 4 73