A Perfect Bowl of Pho

By Nam Nguyen

Nam, a procrastination-prone Vietnamese Canadian university student, sets out with the vague ambition to write a musical about his diaspora as embodied by food, particularly the world-famous noodle soup pho. What follows is pure meta musical, genre-bending through thousands of years of history, featuring rapping ancient kings, communist spies, dancing sharks and refugees, and awkward first dates in suburbia. However, Nam eventually finds himself caught between his different characters as each argues what pho (the food and the show) truly represents, and he struggles to find an answer that will satisfy everyone—in the end, isn’t this just a bunch of silly soup songs?

About Playwright(s)

Country of publication

Cast Information

Cultural background of characters

Total number of characters

Minimum number of actors

Female roles

Male roles

Transgender roles

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Non-Binary Gender Non-Conforming roles

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Gender unespecified roles

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Age of characters

Actor-Friendly Parts

Monologue level

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Monologue details

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Scene level

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Scene details

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Production and Publication

First produced

2017, University of Toronto Drama Festival, Toronto

Publication year

2021

Published by

Playwrights Canada Press

ISBN

9780369102348

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