The Other Vietnam War

When theatre-lovers think Vietnam War, the first thing that comes to mind may be Miss Saigon, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil’s mega-musical that updated Madame Butterfly to the Vietnam War era. But that musical was similar to other Vietnam-themed films in the period such as Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket—the only Vietnamese characters were usually Viet Cong, wide-eyed villagers or prostitutes. But a character is missing: the South Vietnamese soldier. Qui Nguyen was determined to pay tribute to that figure in Vietgone. It’s no wonder: His father, Quang Nguyen, was in the Vietnam Air Force during the war. It is the senior Nguyen’s war trauma, and his yearning to go back to Vietnam, even when he finds himself in the fabled land of the free, that makes up the central conflict of Vietgone. “I just grew up knowing that [my parents] longed for their home country,” said Nguyen. “I wanted to tell that kind of immigrant story where it’s not about folks who fought hard to be here.” Because of that, when Quang Nguyen thinks back on the Vietnam War, his son says, he is not filled with bitterness toward the American government, or regret at having fought. “[The war is] still seen as a complete negative [by Americans]. My dad says to me, it hurts him,” said Nguyen, recalling something his father told him. “ ‘I don’t want people to think that the country that I fought hard [for], we lost absolutely, but I fought hard to try to keep as my home.’ ” That is why in Vietgone, Nguyen is determined to give the microphone to a voice that is not always heard: the South Vietnamese, to show that for many Vietnamese immigrants and Vietnamese-Americans, the war did not signify American aggression; it was a civil war. Like all wars, it had winners and losers. Vietgone aims to explore the Vietnam War from the side that lost. “I think it’s stories that people haven’t heard,” said Nguyen. “I think it’s part of the American story, part of the American fabric. These are American stories, and they are Vietnamese.”

—Diep Tran

An edited version reprinted from OSF’s 2016 Illuminations, a 64-page guide to the season’s plays. For more information on the play, click here. To buy the full Illuminations, click here. Members at the Donor level and above and teachers who bring school groups to OSF receive a free copy of Illuminations.