A love story born of war: Playwright’s parents inspired ‘Vietgone’
All playwright Qui Nguyen had to do was look toward his family for the best material.
It’s worked well for his latest play, “Vietgone,” a romantic comedy premiering until Oct. 25 at South Coast Repertory.
But before he stumbled upon the notion of returning to his roots, the 39-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y., resident thought he’d write a play about comic books and costume play.
Nguyen, who co-founded Vampire Cowboys, a “geek theater” genre that entertains theatergoers with zombies and superheroes, was involved in South Coast Repertory’s community-focused playwriting initiative known as the CrossRoads Commissioning Project.
On the last day of his residency, Nguyen, who had never been to Orange County before, decided to visit the Southeast Asian Archive at UC Irvine. The staff suggested he take a look at the library’s holdings of photographs, slides and paintings relating to the resettlement of Southeast Asian refugees and other immigrants in the United States.
He ended up finding a file on Fort Chaffee, Ark., one of four military bases that served as a refugee camp. The temporary processing center was where his parents met. Though his parents weren’t in any of the images, Nguyen thought of how the two courted and fell in love after the fall of Saigon.
“I didn’t know how to write it,” Nguyen said during a break in the technical rehearsal last week. “I was like, I’ll write it when I’m old and boring, but then I thought they’re older and I want them to see this play.’”
The biggest challenge would be to get the story.
Nguyen’s parents, he said, don’t tend to reminisce about the past. So to get them to talk, Nguyen thought he would play ignorant and ask foolish questions so his parents would correct him while divulging answers.
“Every Asian parent fears that they have a dumb child, so I’d say, ‘I’m writing a play on Vietnam,’ and then I’d make up terribly wrong things. It would make them mad and then they’d start talking about themselves,” he said with a laugh.
Behind the family story was a wild truth for Nguyen to accept.
He thought his mother and father fell in love at first sight.
No, they told him. They were lonely and sad, which led to intimacy, then marriage, and then Nguyen and his sibling. The family also adopted a cousin.
And none of that information, they said, could be put into a play.
“Too late,” Nguyen said. “It’s a very funny, lively and contemporary piece. It’s about a very important circumstance about Vietnamese immigrants becoming Americans.”
“Vietgone” is not another war story, Nguyen said. Instead, it’s about two Vietnamese refugees who escaped Saigon only days before it fell and formed romantic feelings for each other despite complications.
Thuy Vo Dang, archivist for the Southeast Asian Archive and Regional History at UC Irvine, was one of the staff members who connected Nguyen with the collection of photos at the center.
As people from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam flooded Orange County after the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the university took note. UC Irvine Libraries established the Southeast Asian Archive in 1987 to document the experiences of these newcomers and make its books, periodicals, recordings, photographs and other material accessible to all generations.
Dang said that what followed the initial assistance to Nguyen were visits to the archive by set designers and costumers, who wanted to study the period to achieve historical accuracy.
“We’ve really been apart of the creative process,” Dang said. “It makes me so proud that this group used us as a resource. It’s such a wonderful story.
“He’s able to draw on historical events that can engage a contemporary audience. He’s a great success story.”
Nguyen said his parents, who are in their 70s and live in Arkansas, will see the production in New York when the world premiere goes from Costa Mesa to Manhattan.
“It’s a special story,” Nguyen said. “It’s my love story to them.”
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IF YOU GO
What: “Vietgone”
When: 7:45 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 2 and 7:45 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Oct. 25
Where: Julianne Argyros Stage, South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa
Cost: $22 to $77
Information: (714) 708-5555 or visit scr.org