Miss Saigon

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 21^st 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.

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.

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:

http://www.miss-saigon.com/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/10846634/Miss-Saigon-Prince-Edward-Theatre-review-superbly-slick.html

Miss Saigon, Prince Edward Theatre Programme