Người Tìm Nơi Sóng Lặng grew out of the Vietnamese literature I absorbed as a student on a national literature competition team. Hiền was shaped in particular by the fisherwoman in Nguyễn Minh Châu’s Chiếc thuyền ngoài xa, a character who taught me that women like her carry inner lives far richer than the stereotypes we assign them. To build her world, I drew on documentaries, historical dramas, online archives and conversations with people who lived through the 1972 bombing of Hà Nội.

The twist was the starting point, not the destination. I structured the script around two timelines moving in opposite directions, one running forward and one running backward, so the audience gathers the truth piece by piece without seeing where it leads. Beneath that structure, I wanted to write with empathy for the many forms of trauma that war leaves behind, not only for soldiers or for women, but for everyone it touches.

I poured my soul into this play, writing with every emotion I had, from joy, anger and love to resentment, and even my own jealousy and selfishness. Giving my characters my own flaws taught me something I have carried into every project since: I don’t believe in villains. My characters are driven by inner conflict rather than malice, and my work keeps returning to themes of humanity and healing.