During a research trip to London, I had the opportunity to
experience Cameron Mackintosh’s acclaimed new production of the sensational
Miss Saigon, a tragic tale based on Giacomo Puccini’s, opera Madame Butterfly. Set
in 1975 during the final days of the American occupation of Saigon, Miss Saigon
is an epic love story about the upheaval relationship between an American GI
and a young Vietnamese woman.
This West End revival has created a striking, new freshness
and accommodates for its 21st century audiences. This can been seen
through the much angrier and meaner American GI’s, through the using and
abusing of Vietnam’s woman, and through culture and politics; all of which
create a essence of heart and reality for the audience to experience.
Furthermore, Production and set designers Totie Driver and
Matt Kinley created a squalid Vietnam, with so much realism you can almost
smell the mixture of smoky, contaminated air and cheap perfume. What is more
the set design itself explores a sordid atmosphere and an utter emphasis of
poverty and destitution. In addition, it allows the audience to understand the
desperation of getting out of the slums and keeping her child safe. This type
of ingenious use of set design, is the kind that draws the audience into the
story and what is more aids in the progression of the characters.
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| Jon Jon Briones as The Engineer |
The scene-stealer of the whole production is the dramatic flashback
scene, featuring the Embassy gates and a helicopter. For this scene, the front
of a real helicopter is used and lowered onto the stage, the realism is done by
using sound, and lighting. This one fast paced, heartfelt scene gives a real
sense of the imprisoned corrugated-iron Embassy gates and the agony and despair
of the Vietnamese citizens trying to break through.
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| Embassy Gates and Helicopter |
Overall, director Laurence Connor’s production has an
astounding cinematic fluency and keeps the drama and tension running
throughout, which forces the audience onto the edge of their seats.
Sources:
Miss Saigon, Prince Edward Theatre Programme
