Ho Chi Minh play in NYC

Dan Duffy <dduffy@email.unc.edu>

date Dec 8, 2006 10:41 AM

subject [Vsg] Ho Chi Minh play in NYC

Today's NYT has a review on page B2 by Charlese Isherwood of "Two

September" by Marc Wellman, illustrated with a photo of Arthur Acuna as

Ho looking very downtown with shaved head and trimmed goatee.

I don't know the play or the playwright. The reviewer's take is that he

is a man of wit with a Manhattan following who now has done a pedestrian

job telling a story of national interest.

The play follows the socialist and popular author Josephine Herbst in

one plot, and two Deer Team members, Ho, and Bao Dai in another. The

reviewer's summary, "a learned historical tableau that is dangerously

low on theatrical vitality" reminds me of a play also set in Ha Noi at

that time that I saw in Paris six years ago, which followed Phillipe

DeVillers' work wonderfully.

We can't all be Bert Brecht. Wish I could run up there and see it: at

the Flea Theater, 41 White Street, through Dec 16, tel. 212-352-3101.