• Performance
• Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
• 03/2019 in Vietnam Comic Day 2019 organized by Comicola

“A Primus’ Dream” is a dance play produced by Vietnam Centre, with most of the cast was volunteering high schoolers from Trần Đại Nghĩa gifted high school. Below is the synopsis of the play.

It’s been told that there was a guy, who fell asleep while cramming for an exam, waking up finding himself stuck in the time of 500 years ago. He turned out to be a student living under the reign of Emperor Lê Thánh Tông of Great Việt. Without any modern transportation, he had to travel thousands of miles to the capital on his foot. Without the familiar not-yet-to-exist Latinized characters, he had to find a way to make it among other students of Confucianism who had already mastered the Four Books and Five Classics. The few times he had ever heard of these texts in his forgone modern life were in movies. Could our guy win over the mandarins in a powerful court? Was he able to reach the highest ranks in the Imperial examination so that he could, in great honor, come home where his old mom was waiting for him days on end?

The dance play “A Primus’ Dream”, written and directed by the young director Hà Huy Anh is a novel state-of-the-art experiment of Vietnam Centre. It brought a whole new experience to our dear audience with this play where they could see the ancient attires showcased in lively stage motions.

Below is the translation of the text in the poster. It was an excerpt from an ancient writing of Thân Nhân Trung.

“The righteous and talented is the essential energy of a nation, therefore, the nation becomes strong and prosperous when the essential energy flourishes, weak and inferior when it wilts. Hence, no perspicacious Emperor would ever neglect the education of the talented, the selection of the scholars and the cultivation of the nation’s essential energy. For the scholars have such an important impact on the nation, they are respected to a great extent, they are highly honored in terms of academia and also granted titles and positions. Even such favors are deemed not enough. Their names are listed at Tháp Nhạn, the title of Long Hổ (Dragon and Tiger) is granted to praise them, announcement feasts are hosted. When a court celebrates for finding the talented, everything wouldbe done at its finest."