Qui Nguyen Finds a Home in Orange County
As a playwright, I’m a little bit ADD artistically,” says Qui Nguyen. “I get bored really quickly. I put things in there that are kind of wild, just to keep myself entertained.”
Nguyen’s breakthrough play, Vietgone, illustrates exactly what he’s talking about. At times, the boisterous comedy based on a piece of Nguyen’s family history—the early courtship of his parents during the mid-1970s, set against the tumult of the Vietnam War—seems to run on an undiluted stream of consciousness. Filled with pungent rap lyrics, strange tangents, fourth-wall smashing, clever linguistic gibberish, and other modes of postmodernist mayhem, the offbeat take on a traditional form, the romantic comedy, is as groundbreaking as Hamilton has been for musical theater.
Since its premiere at Orange County’s South Coast Repertory (SCR) in October 2015, has received a wealth
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