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?

Genres: Plays, Canadian Literature

144 pages, Paperback

Published November 23, 2021

Reviews

[Jane Mulkewich · Rating 5 out of 5]

I missed the opportunity to see this play at the Hamilton Fringe Festival this summer, so I got this book out of the library, and now I am really extra sorry I didn't see the play! It looks like it would be a fun production, complete with music / silly soup songs (all about pho and Vietnamese culture / diaspora, with both fun and serious messages), and I am curious about how much of the interesting information in the footnotes in the book make it into the play somehow.

One interesting footnote example: "Sometimes people don't connect that Michelin tires and Michelin stars are from the same company, which I wouldn't blame you for. Makes sense, though, when you think about star ratings as a way to encourage the middle class to buy tires and go out on long car trips to top-tier restaurants. On the flip side of this, around the time Michelin invented their star system, they were overseeing some truly appalling abuses of tens of thousands of starving rubber plantation labourers in colonial Vietnam to supply their French tire factories. It's no surprise that those plantations were hotbeds of communist recruitment and revolt from the 1920s straight through to 1975. Also unsurprising: Michelin does not like to talk about this."

[Not Sarah Connor Writes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given this book by Playwrights Canada Press in exchange for an honest review!

God, this play was hilarious! If A Perfect Bowl of Pho was able to make me laugh just when reading then seeing it live would be hysterical! Hopefully one day it will grace a stage near me and I'll be able to see this brilliant play in person.

Read my full review on my blog!

[Suhani · Rating 5 out of 5]

rating: 4.5
It was really interesting, informative and funny. It was a little confusing at some bits but overall it was really good. The characters were very well thought out.

[Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

RTC

[Zoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now I may be biased as a friend of the author, but personally I think Nam should be invited back on Jeopardy!