The new plays entitled Hoc Gia (False Diplomas) and Tri An (Grateful) starting next Monday at the Tuoi Tre (Young) Theatre in Hanoi, are offering dimmer —

but hilarious — scenarios of why contemporary ambitions are not always such a go odthing.

Getting what you want

Hoc Gia is the story of a rather dishonest rags to riches tale. Eager to succeed in life, a simple countryside man gets hired by a big city company and dreams of one day being the boss and decides to hit the books. He starts off with a quick training course to fast track his way to a high school diploma. He heads off to university, where he bribes his teachers to get good grades, taking advantage of any special occasion such as the Lunar New Year or Mid-Autumn Festival to pass along ‘gifts’.

He later hires himself an assistant to take his lessons, exams and write his graduation thesis. With his excellent marks and outstanding record, he gets his boss’s attention, who encourages him to pursue his Doctorate degree so that he can continue his assisted climb to the top.

The other play, Tri An (Grateful) is an even more cynical story. The chairman of a province’s People’s Committee wants to offer two pieces of silk that he bought from Mongolia to two elderly people who had made great contributions to the country’s revolution, so that they can make festival clothes.

Instead of offering it to them personally, he asks one of his employees to send the gift. Unfortunately, that employee had just lost a football bet, and so he sold one of the clothes to pay his debts and continue gambling. The other piece is wrapped up to offer to the two old people in a solemn ceremony with the presence of provincial authorities and children singing along.

One day, the chairman comes back to the village and meets the two old people. He wanted to take photos of them wearing the clothes made from the Mongolian silk. To his surprise, he saw the old man wearing a pair of red shorts and the woman wearing a red miniskirt, the only two pieces of clothing that could be made from the single piece of silk.

Bitter laughs

While the play ends in laughter, audiences are also left with a certain sense of bitterness, as witnesses of the false benevolence that stems from modern life. It may be this characteristic that sets these plays apart from other comedies.

"We wanted to make the plays reflect modern society," said Chi Trung, the director of the two shows who also stars as the ambitious country-side man. "The fact that the man in the play follows the crash courses would not be so bad if it were to improve his knowledge. But when his studies become just ‘a business’ to win fame, he should be condemned."

"In the second play, we also wanted to denounce a bad aspect of society, one that pushes the two old people into such a bad situation," he noted.

The play was written by Thanh Binh from HCM City and directed by Trung, who is one of the theatre’s most famous comedians.

With the upcoming Vietnamese Women’s day (October 20) coinciding with the play’s debut, Trung said he’s offering the play as a gift for women everywhere.

Strong, talented actors help bring the play to life, with Van Dung playing the sharp-tongued wife of the director, and other talented actresses including Hoa Thuy, Thanh Duong and Tu Oanh.

The play will debut next Monday, at 8pm, at the Tuoi Tre (Youth) Theatre, at 11 Ngo Thi Nham Street, Ha Noi. Tickets are available at the theatre. — VNS