by Miriam Glass
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I could have danced all night: Expats and Vietnamese performers rehearse for My Fair Lady. — Photo courtesy Nic Jacka |
HA NOI — Wendy Conway Lamb swirls across the room with light and graceful steps and sings I Could Have Danced All Night, but then she stops and laughs and starts again because she is not sure of the choreography yet.
The 30-year-old who grew up in England, lived in Australia for a while and came to Ha Noi a year ago, is rehearsing for the performance of the musical My Fair Lady at the Hoàng Ha Theatre on April 1-3. By the premiere she wants all her steps and lines to be perfect.
Lamb is a member of the Ha Noi International Theatre Society (HITS), which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and expects to perform for over 1,000 people. The musical will be performed in English, but for the first time in the history of HITS, the performance is going to be subtitled in Vietnamese.
HITS draws people from around the world, expats and Vietnamese alike. What unites them is their enthusiasm for theatre and performing. Some of them have professional experience with acting, directing or stage management, but most are lay persons, learning to act, dance and sing as they go.
"The rehearsals are challenging, but also very energising and lots of fun," says Lamb.
She has always liked singing, but never done it professionally. Now she plays one of the leads in My Fair Lady, the character of Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flower girl from London.
Doolittle's accent immediately reveals that she belongs to the working class, and so she takes speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins, a phoneticist, so that she can pass as a proper lady. The musical, set in London in 1912, tells the story of Doolittle's path from the streets to the ballroom in Buckingham Palace.
Premiering in 1956 on Broadway, My Fair Lady was an instant hit, snagging nine Tony awards that year. Some of its songs are still famous, such as The Rain in Spain and I Could Have Danced All Night.
In Ha Noi, the musical is directed by Kai Borchert, a 48-year-old professional singer from Germany who has lived in the Vietnamese capital for nearly three years.
"My Fair Lady is one of my favourite plays. But we still have a lot of work to do to get ready for the stage," Borchert says, before rushing back to the rehearsal and telling the actors to sing out as loud as they can.
Since HITS is a non-profit-group, all proceeds from performances go to a local charity. This year, HITS will be donating to the Highland Education Development Organisation (HEDO), a non-governmental organisation working to develop the education levels of the people and children in the highland and disadvantaged areas of Viet Nam.
Performances will take place in Hong Ha Theatre, 51 Duong Thanh Street on Friday, April 1 at 8 pm, Saturday, April 2 at 8pm, and on Sunday, April 3 at 1pm. Tickets cost VND150,000 (US$7.2). — VNS