Sadec 1965: A Love Story
Created by Flora Le
Produced by From Ego to Soul
60m
Content warning: Sexual content, described performance
“Do you think this has anything to do with your father?”
Flora Le had always felt a void in her life—one that she tried to fill with failed relationships, food, drugs, and compulsive shopping. When Flora’s father died, she decided to learn about her Vietnamese background by travelling 3,500 km through Vietnam on a motorcycle, to her father’s hometown of Sadec in the Mekong Delta. What could go wrong?
For starters, although she is half-Vietnamese, Flora knew nothing about Vietnamese culture. Her father came to Montréal on a four-year engineering scholarship in 1967, during the Vietnam War. When he graduated, the war was still raging, so he married his Québecoise girlfriend and stayed in Canada. He never spoke to his children about Vietnam.
The motorcycle trip isn’t the only story, but it does give structure to the performance. Bigger stories are revealed over time, as Flora shares stories about her life: How her parents’ separation affected her; the difficult reunion with her dying father; how Flora and her brother learned about their father’s life before he immigrated. She intersperses small reveals while slowly building a bigger picture to tie all the threads together. This episodic development draws the audience in. Many reveals are mini-cliffhangers that keep the audience wanting more. When Flora’s storytelling reached its climax, several audience members were in tears.
The audience gave Flora Le three curtain calls. A moving performance indeed.
Sadec 1965: A Love Story is playing at Studio 1201 until June 24, 2023. Visit ottawafringe.com/fringe/ for the schedule and box office info. Read more reviews at https://apt613.ca/category/festival/fringe/.
