Hoi An Traditional Art Performance House

This guide to the Hoi An Traditional Art Performance House follows Đào Duy Từ, a boy marked by his father's shameful trade as a folk singer under the sixteenth-century Confucian code. It traces the royal exam meant to open doors for him instead slamming shut, his mother's scheme to slip him past the ban, and the price an official demanded in return. From there the story turns south, as Từ carries his talents to the rival Nguyễn lords. Listen from the upstairs stage, above the mask-painting tables where visitors try the brush themselves.