"The Night of the Monkeys" is a detective drama, taking the audience on a journey to investigate the culprit who caused the unjust death of little Ai. Amidst the vast, luxurious estate of Mrs. Tu's family, there is a feeling of suffocation and grief after the child's strange departure.
Author Xuyen Lam puts all members of the villa on the chessboard of suspicion. One by one, each character, the prodigal son Sinh (Quach Ngoc Tuyen), Lien (Minh Thao), the disabled Mrs. Tu (Meritorious Artist Tuyet Thu) and even the naive, mysterious Hunchback are put into question.
But, not only aiming at the final answer about the culprit, the play gradually highlights and exposes human greed with the real motive behind that escape drama. The real culprit's reckless behavior and destructive attitude towards nature have made the work exude a painful message of cause and effect.
Director and artist Chanh Truc said that the decision to stage "The Night of the Howling Gibbons" again after nearly 10 years brought many great advantages. The 10 years helped him contemplate the scenes and analyze the psychology of each character more thoroughly.
Each character in "The Night of the Monkeys" forms a miniature society with a full range of joy, anger, love, and hate, the greed, anger, and hatred in human nature. Therefore, from the character's appearance, demeanor to background, all bring certain challenges to the performance team.
The return to Theater 5B of Meritorious Artist Tuyet Thu (playing Mrs. Tu) surprised the audience with many of her acting scenes.
Mrs. Tu's final monologue received great praise from the audience, because each line contained the frustration of the female owner of an incomplete business.
"The Night of the Howling Gibbons" is the second work performed by the Small Stage Drama Theater to compete in the first Ho Chi Minh City Drama Festival 2024.
This rather bold choice comes from the mind of the Theater Director - People's Artist My Uyen to introduce the diversity in style and theme of the city's drama.
The play "The Monkey Howling Night" will be performed at the Ho Chi Minh City Drama Festival at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 19.
