MEDIATHEK

Arrival Cities: Hanoi is a piece of music theatre with documentary film. It seeks a new format for politically informed theatre which is responsive to the challenges of a globalized society. Arrival Cities: Hanoi weaves many individual stories together in an exploration of the dissolution of the relationship with tradition that urbanization brings. The form of the piece draws on the long-term development of artistic method for music theatre, carried out by Teatr Weimar, building on the aesthetics of the hörspiel. Hence, the music, written by the Swedish composer Kent Olofsson, in collaboration with the Vietnamese/Swedish group The Six Tones, is central to the narrative.

The Canadian journalist Doug Saunders discusses 21st century migration in his book titled “Arrival Cities” (2010). Building on research on five continents, his book chronicles the final shift of human populations from rural to urban areas, which Saunders argues is the most important development of the 21st-century. He argues that this migration creates "arrival cities," neighbourhoods and slums on the urban margins that are linked both to villages and to core cities, and that the fate of these centres is crucial to the fortunes of nations.

Arrival Cities: Hanoi builds a narrative from the life story of Luu Ngoc Nam, an actor and costume maker in traditional Tuồng theatre. His travels in the country, the homesickness and the tension between traditions that he experiences becomes the source for a further exploration of hand gesture in Tuồng theatre and an expansive portrait of a city vibrant of memories from the Vietnamese countryside.

In May and June of 2014 The Six Tones worked with the Swedish director Jörgen Dahlqvist in Hanoi, making documentary recordings and interviews with people in migration zones in the city. Their stories are all very different, one woman works as a street vendor to pay for her two children’s studies in university in Hanoi. Even if she will never become a Hanoian, her children will surely have the option. While collecting the documentary material, we realised how the performer’s own stories of migration to and from Hanoi had to be part of the piece. In this way, the piece exposes many personal and deeply felt stories and experiences of the fragility that comes with being in a state of migration. The political nature of the piece emerges from the presence of the three musicians of the group on stage as individuals rather than as musicians or actors.