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The Calgary Fringe Festival runs Aug. 4-12 at various venues in Inglewood. Every morning theatre critic Louis Hobson will choose his best bet for the day. Here is his pick for Wednesday, Aug. 9
The ‘sins’ of fathers don’t just impact sons as Flora Le clearly shows in her powerful solo show Sadec 1965 A Love Story: From Ego to Soul, which wraps up its festival run Wednesday.
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Le’s father had come to Montreal from his town of Sadec in Vietnam in 1967 on a four-year engineering scholarship and married his Quebecois girlfriend so he could stay in Canada. He never spoke about his life in Vietnam so, after his death from cancer, Le decided to take a motorcycle trip through Vietnam to learn about the culture he refused to share with her and her brother. She also wanted to learn about the woman who wrote him more than 600 letters.
Le’s gift as a storyteller is to make each audience feel as if they are the first to hear these stories and to share in all the pathos they created in her life. She also lets her audiences see the differences between her young innocent self and the hardened, bitter woman who emerged for a while.
This is a story about healing that required Le to immerse herself in a culture and a world that was foreign but also necessary for her to make sense of her shattered life. It makes for a powerful journey, not just for Le but for her audiences.
Sadec 1965 A Love Story: From Ego to Soul runs Aug. 9 at 6 p.m. in the Lantern Church’s Fellowship Hall.