This tool is unavailable at the moment. Please try again later.
Start planning your production with a cost estimate you can save and share with your team. Just answer a few questions.
This estimator is only for amateur productions. Professional customers should contact the Licensing department directly to enquire about a title's availability: [email protected]
Important: The cost quoted is an estimate only and may differ when you apply for a licence.
A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE
Full-Length Play, Comedy / 2w, 3m
Qui Nguyen
“This riotous theatrical cartoon won me over with its simple honesty.” – Los Angeles Times
Image: 2016 Manhattan Theatre Club Production (Carol Rosegg)
Winner! 2016 LA Drama Critics Circle Ted Schmitt Award Winner! 2016 ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award
An all-American love story about two very new Americans. It’s 1975. Saigon has fallen. He lost his wife. She lost her fiancé. But now in a new land, they just might find each other. Using his uniquely infectious style The New York Times calls “culturally savvy comedy” – and skipping back and forth from the dramatic evacuation of Saigon to the here and now – playwright Qui Nguyen gets up close and personal to tell the story that led to the creation of… Qui Nguyen.
QUANG – (M) A helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. Adventurous, charming, rugged. TONG – (F) A Vietnamese refugee. Strong-willed, effortlessly sexy, and fiercely independent. HUONG – (F) Tong’s mother. Outspoken, surprisingly flirtatious, unpredictable. NHAN – (M) Quang’s best friend. Boisterous, loyal, horny. BOBBY – (M) American soldier. Naïve, earnest, sweet.
Members of the ensemble may play a variety of supporting characters:
AMERICAN GIRL AMERICAN GUY ASIAN GIRL ASIAN GUY CAPTAIN CHAMBERS FLOWER GIRL GIAI HIPPIE DUDE NINJAS PLAYWRIGHT PROTESTORS REDNECK BIKER TRANSLATOR
Several locations over the journey of Quang and Tong from Saigon to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas.
“Fresh and impish... a raucous comedy by Qui Nguyen that strafes just about every subject it tackles and every character it presents.” – The New York Times
CRITICS' PICK! “Vietgone is easily the freshest, most exuberantly youthful piece I’ve seen at MTC in ages: a punch-drunk mash-up of hip-hop, road movies, sex farce and Vietnamese-American history. Oh, also kick-ass fights.” – Time Out New York, Read More
“An unlikely intermingling of family play, history play, sex farce, action flick, and cultural critique. It is overtly rollicking and sneakily moving.” – The Guardian, Read More
CRITICS' PICK! “A raucous comedy by Qui Nguyen that strafes just about every subject it tackles and every character it presents... Mr. Nguyen’s fresh and impish voice rarely lets up as he thumbs his nose at our expectations.” – The New York Times, Read More
“Vietgone makes you believe that epic tales of heroism and loss exist all around us in this nation of immigrants.” – TheaterMania, Read More
CRITICS' PICK! “Vietgone careens wildly, threatening whiplash to heighten our amusement. By the end, however, this riotous theatrical cartoon won me over with its simple honesty.” – Los Angeles Times, Read More
“Vietgone rides a wave of profane irreverence, sprawling storytelling, spiky humor, bald stereotypes and in the end a searing personal testament that honors the people on whose soil the war was fought... Nguyen understands confidently that his story possesses an intrinsic weight and he doesn’t need to preach. He writes with laughter, satire, anger and profanity.” – The Star Tribune, Read More
ON BREAKING CHARACTER
Scene Study and Classroom Reading: Plays for Colleges and Universities by Becca Schlossberg August 23, 2019
Our Picks for 2019 Fall Plays Samuel French March 27, 2019
Our Picks For The 2019/20 Season Lawrence Haynes January 7, 2019
Vietgone at MTC: Montage
Qui Nguyen and May Adrales discuss Vietgone
Vietgone - South Coast Rep Excerpts
Vietgone - San Diego Rep Promo
Qui Nguyen is a playwright, screenwriter, and co-founder of the Obie Award-winning Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company of NYC.
His plays include Vietgone (2016 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, 2016 LADCC Tim Schmitt Award, 2016 Edward M. Kennedy Prize finalist); War ...