Tales of boyhood expand beyond the Fringe
Good Morning, Viet Mom
★★★ (out of 4) Written by Franco Nguyen. Directed by Byron Abalos. Until March 3 at the Aki Studio Theatre, 585 Dundas St. E. Cahoots.ca or 416-531-1402 Solo storytelling shows are the bread and butter of the Fringe circuit; with few creatives involved and usually very few set pieces, they’re easy to tour and cheap to put on. But once in a while, a solo show breaks out of the festival scene to stand on its own. Originally titled Soaring in
Liquid Skies, standup and sketch comedian Franco Nguyen’s hour-long reflection on growing up as the son of Vietnamese immigrants has grown tremendously since its first appearance at the Toronto Fringe in 2017. For one thing, its new title, Good Morning, Viet
Mom, is much more evocative of Nguyen’s sense of humour, which drives his storytelling, with its focus on his relationship with his mother Dieu and her life story.
Although the show includes material that’s almost positively part of Nguyen’s tight 15 minutes as a standup, the uniqueness of Good Morning, Viet Mom comes from Nguyen’s concurrent studies in film, drawing from the footage he collected on various trips to his mother’s home in Vietnam, and the way that director Byron Abalos and technical director David DeGrow pull comedy, theatre and film together. They dive deeper into Nguyen’s family history, past the laughs and into the much darker reality of Dieu’s childhood, marriage and parenting style, and how it has affected Nguyen’s own path to adulthood. This combination got it rave reviews at the Fringe festival and a subsequent run at the Fringe’s wintertime offshoot, the Next Stage Theatre Festival, last year. Now Good Morning, Viet Mom is on its own tour with Cahoots Theatre, heading to Mississauga and Victoria, B.C., in March. Nguyen’s story remains largely the same — including the bits that hit his comedic strengths, like his impression of being a child in the middle of a nasty divorce and some jabs at Winnipeg winters — but this version of the show benefits from a more advanced set design by Christine Urquhart, projections by Kevin Matthew Wong, sound by Miquelon Rodriguez and lighting by DeGrow that amplify Nguyen’s jokes like a good partner.
It makes one yearn to see what all touring standups could do with an intricate technical design. And yet, there are elements of Good Morning, Viet Momthat haven’t escaped what one would associate with a Fringe show: Nguyen’s story follows the common trajectory of humour, emotional reckoning and a heartfelt but middling ending that have come to define the personal storytelling show.
It works and it’s especially powerful with this particular story, which explores an emotionally fraught immigrant experience. The fortunate bonus is Nguyen’s footage, which makes Dieu (a beautiful “fashion person”) a character of her own, beyond Nguyen’s intentionally exaggerated impersonation of her. But his portrayals of his parents fall into extremes, leaving the question of whether Good Morning, Viet Mom could have been developed further to include more nuance in this aspect.
But as the play begins its own cross-country journey, it’s clear that Nguyen, a sometimes stiff but engaging performer, has been on a much longer path to reach a mature and sensitive relationship to his family history. And this show is a testament to that, and his artistic passions.