Dora Houpis
Local actor and playwright Vivian Nguyen bares her soul about her funny, sad and religious experience of falling in love during her one-woman show “A moment to love” playing at the Melbourne Fringe festival next week.
Sunshine North resident, Nguyen, plays herself when she tells the love story of a 27-year-old Vietnamese-Australian woman who plays the field on internet dating sites, but then falls in love with her soul mate.
Nguyen said the play showed the “fantasticalness of love” as she stumbled with dating and met strange people.
“Love makes you ridiculous,” she said.
“”It makes you childish in an adorable way.”
She said the play she wrote, produced and performs in was a comedy, drama and commentary on religion all rolled into one.
“It’s a comedy like in that love is silliness and innocence,” Nguyen said.
But she said love was also sad as there were boundaries, trauma and consequences.
Nguyen, who grew up Catholic, said the play also touched on how today’s woman had to be “hot, sexy” where as in religion a woman had to be like the Virgin Mary.
She said both were ideals.
Nguyen’s parents were from south-east Asia and her father was a refugee.
She said her play had a “sprinkling” of Asian-Australian references and observations about that culture’s relationship to love.
“A moment to love” is playing at the The Motley Bauhaus, 118 Elgin Street, Carlton, from Monday 3 October to Sunday 9 October, between 9.30 to 10.30pm. Details: www.melbournefringe.com.au or call 9660 9600.
