I know that the Vietnamese can be drama queens but are they any good at drama?

Shows, shows and more shows! It seems there is a show happening in every hamlet and village in Vietnam every week. I’m never quite sure if the Vietnamese love showing off or honestly believe they are good performers. 

It looks awkward, clumsy and badly stage-managed to me but it’s not stopping the locals.

From caterwauling your favorite crooner’s pop songs in front of the home karaoke sound system to female university teachers in ao dai(Vietnamese long gown) performing customary songs when their dresses are too tight to allow a full turn without breaking a leg, the whole nation feels the need to dance, clap and sing their way through life.

I, for example, love those public announcements from my local people’s committee broadcast over the loudspeakers – loud enough to wake the dead yet with no idea of sound control. I can often hear the announcer, thinking no one can hear him, complaining about the sound feedback that makes him stop every few seconds to let the howling electronics die away. Hmm... I’d love to help but it’s safer to stay in my house.

The problem is me. I’m used to perfect, flawless presentations by highly trained, motivated and talented performers. So it’s all my fault. However I am trying to fix the situation. I’ve started teaching drama to my teenage students. Drama is fun, builds confidence, requires some critical thinking and opens young minds to “the world of pure imagination.” (Yes, I stole that line from the original ‘Willy Wonka’ movie.)

Drama can be a major asset in educating a population mostly unfamiliar with applying modern technologies such as smartphones and Wi-Fi to providing timely, vital information in times of emergency or hazard. Its value is evident in simply instructing people on the basic social ethics of the day, such as obeying the traffic rules or avoiding setting up the metal wedding event frame in the middle of a lightning storm.

It could be as funny as watching an inexperienced tour guide lead forty cyclists around the back roads of Hoi An. Imagine the actors pretending to be motorcyclists learning to ride behind the oncoming traffic or serving a customer the right way... with ‘butter’, not ‘bacon’ – a mistake I frequently experience around Hoi An’s culinary scene. As silly as my suggestion sounds, it could be a practical way to show the locals that there are alternatives to the way things have always been done.

Another example could be acting out the correct way for a hotel’s security guard to deal with tourists using its private beach. Another one could be role-plays on being pulled over by the local constabulary for license interviews – especially useful for authorities unused to dealing with international driving licenses. I’d be happy to write a play for tour guides negotiating their tour prices. We can harness the power of drama to explain to tradesmen why it’s a good idea to clean up after working on a site – scene one: outraged housewife complaining to confused tradesman leaning on his shovel. Environmental plays are popular these days and easy to do too. You only need a few dozen plastic bags and a garbage bin. 

Instead of holding a festival where a real animal is killed for the sake of superstition, why not use a giant paper copy of the animal with exploding bags of ketchup inside? Personally I’d love to do a show about how smartphones will kill your love life and probably yourself in the traffic.

Anyway, all joking aside, drama opens the possibility of gently broadening minds and fits in perfectly with the local passion for performance art. I think that Da Nang should begin immediate construction on the National Graduate University of Young Entertainers and Narrative (N.G.U.Y.E.N.) instead of the horrible dolphinarium the tourism authorities have proposed. 

We could start with “Do you know where your kids are?” – a show related to swimming safety and responsibility. I know there are already events on helmet use and basic hygiene (washing your hands etc.) so they should be a compulsory five minute show between the emcee’s fiddling with the sound system and the next act.

I also think this would be a useful distraction at the Da Nang Fireworks Competition to fill in those painful five minute scene changes during the television broadcast.

If you need advice about using drama in education – drop me a line. However I charge 20 dollars an hour for writing and directing services! So let’s add drama to our entertainment options and teach Vietnam at the same time!