Speaker 1: Campsite media.
Speaker 2: In front of me, there's a group of acting students.
Speaker 2: The youngest ones are in their twenties, the oldest is
Speaker 2: over seventy, and they're intently.
Speaker 1: Focused on their teacher.
Speaker 2: She's a woman with wiry, salt and pepper hair, and
Speaker 2: she's leading them through an exercise. She calls out two
Speaker 2: conflicting emotions.
Speaker 1: Let's start with love and fear.
Speaker 3: So let your movements.
Speaker 1: Expressed love and fear.
Speaker 2: And suddenly these actors are circling the room silently pantomiming
Speaker 2: feelings of love and fear. They're warming up to rehearse
Speaker 2: the final act of Othello, a play about jealousy and deception.
Speaker 2: I'm here in California on assignment for The Washington Post.
Speaker 1: I'm reporting a piece.
Speaker 2: About Shakespeare as therapy, how these stories about our deepest
Speaker 2: humanity can help people heal from their trauma because Shakespeare's plays,
Speaker 2: at a core level, they're about what human beings do
Speaker 2: to each other, what we're capable of at our best
Speaker 2: and our worst.
Speaker 1: I start talking to one of the actors because I'm
Speaker 1: gentle yet can't drop my stories. Trung is friendly and
Speaker 1: soft spoken.
Speaker 2: Literally, I have to lean in close in order to
Speaker 2: hear him. He's mid twenties, clean shaven with impeccably palmated hair.
Speaker 2: He tells me he's a substance abuse counselor, and that
Speaker 2: tracks the way he looks at me. I can tell
Speaker 2: he's really listening. And when I ask him, Trunk says,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of reasons he wanted to join this
Speaker 2: Shakespeare group.
Speaker 3: Had a OA and I did a break dancing too.
Speaker 2: He loves to perform, and he likes these plays, how
Speaker 2: they're universal themes of sacrifice, loss, and love have helped
Speaker 2: him access his emotions, to see himself more clearly. He says,
Speaker 2: these plays have allowed him to confront the pain he's caused.
Speaker 2: I ask him what he means by that, and to
Speaker 2: my surprise, he doesn't hesitate. He launches into a story
Speaker 2: that I cannot believe is real, A story that feels
Speaker 2: like Shakespeare himself could have written it, A story that
Speaker 2: starts with Trung's identical twin brother.
Speaker 1: Shakespeare was fascinated by siblings. There's Ophelia and.
Speaker 2: Laertes, Edmund and Edgar Sebastian, and in both his comedies
Speaker 2: and his tragedies, he makes them compete.
Speaker 1: For the attention and approval of their parents.
Speaker 2: He tests the limits of their love for one another,
Speaker 2: and he pushes them apart, sometimes violently. Shakespeare himself was
Speaker 2: the father of twins, Judith and Hamnet, and when Hamnet
Speaker 2: died at the age of eleven, Shakespeare began to process
Speaker 2: this very particular grief in his plays. He writes Twelfth
Speaker 2: Night about twins separated in a shipwreck. The action of
Speaker 2: the play is built around mistaken identities, but it's really
Speaker 2: about the unique bond these siblings share and what happens
Speaker 2: when that tie is broken. Trung knows all about this,
Speaker 2: and it's a tale he's now pouring out to me.
Speaker 2: Six years earlier, Trung tells me his twin On got
Speaker 2: into a fight at a birthday party. By the time
Speaker 2: it was over, the twins had embarked on a journey
Speaker 2: that would forever change both of them, not just who
Speaker 2: they were as individuals, but who they were to each other.
Speaker 1: So where's your brother, Morn?
Speaker 2: As Trung and I talk, his fellow Thespians are rehearsing
Speaker 2: right there beside us, and I hear Othello, Morn, you
Speaker 2: must speak of one that loved not wisely, but too well.
Speaker 2: I can see how Trung and On are guilty of
Speaker 2: having loved each other too well, if not always wisely.
Speaker 1: Twins bonded through DNA and.
Speaker 2: Also hardship brothers who were best friends, who trusted each
Speaker 2: other completely, who would have followed each other anywhere, even
Speaker 2: if it meant losing absolutely everything. From Wondery and camp
Speaker 2: side Media, I'm Jen Miller and this is Blood will tell.
Speaker 2: This is episode one, Shakespeare in San Jose. It's a
Speaker 2: Saturday evening in January when eighteen year old Trung knocks
Speaker 2: on the door of his brother's bedroom. They live in
Speaker 2: the same home, but they haven't seen each other much lately.
Speaker 2: Trunk's been swamped juggling a sales job at T Mobile,
Speaker 2: a full course load at college, and finishing his Eagle
Speaker 2: Scout certification.
Speaker 1: And Trung is missing his best friend. But there's a
Speaker 1: party tonight.
Speaker 3: Pretty much for the first time like that. So these parties,
Speaker 3: like it felt like a drag, but at the same time,
Speaker 3: it's like, oh, let's go have fun. He sounds like
Speaker 3: a good way to relax.
Speaker 1: On looks up from his bed, which is littered with textbooks.
Speaker 3: How do you want to go my at homework.
Speaker 1: Trunk is surprised.
Speaker 2: He's the one typically concerned about how today's choice will
Speaker 2: impact tomorrow's outcome. That's how he's two semesters ahead in college.
Speaker 2: But more recently, On has felt the pressure to keep
Speaker 2: up with Trunk. On begs, let me study. Trunk's not
Speaker 2: having any of it.
Speaker 3: You know what, we deserve this. Let's just go and
Speaker 3: have fun.
Speaker 2: Maybe this party will be a good way to blow
Speaker 2: off steam for both of them.
Speaker 1: So On relents, all right, let's do it.
Speaker 3: It's hyped up. Pick our outfits.
Speaker 2: The party is a twenty first birthday thrown by a
Speaker 2: friend of Trunk's girlfriend.
Speaker 1: There's a black and white theme.
Speaker 2: The twins pull on their true religion genes and long
Speaker 2: sleeve black shirts. When they were little kids, their parents
Speaker 2: often dress them the same, so this it's like a
Speaker 2: fun throwback, and tonight it makes it almost impossible to
Speaker 2: tell them apart. They're both five nine around one hundred
Speaker 2: and sixty pounds. They have a few physical differences, though
Speaker 2: Trung's face is clean shaven and more narrow, and On
Speaker 2: has a sparse mustache and the shadow of a mole
Speaker 2: over his lip. These minor physical differences are going to
Speaker 2: be crucial for what's to come for the both of them.
Speaker 2: After a final fit check in the mirror, they're ready
Speaker 2: to head out. Trung drives his brother and their girlfriends
Speaker 2: we're calling them Monica and Carly to a well appointed
Speaker 2: split level home in the foothills of San Jose, California.
Speaker 2: It's a short trip and a world away from the
Speaker 2: affordable housing complex where the twins grew up. They walk
Speaker 2: past a rock garden and flower beds. Following the thump
Speaker 2: of music, Trung enters the party and takes a quick scan.
Speaker 1: He's impressed.
Speaker 3: Looks like pretty bougie and had a DJ and everything.
Speaker 1: He goes to pour himself a drink.
Speaker 3: They opened like a cooler and I saw shot glasses
Speaker 3: made out of ice.
Speaker 2: Trung makes his way through the house. The guests are
Speaker 2: mostly Vietnamese like him. Some of them are college kids,
Speaker 2: but he doesn't recognize them. They're at four year schools,
Speaker 2: not community college like him and An.
Speaker 1: Trung is relieved. In recent months.
Speaker 2: He has been trying and largely failing to avoid situations
Speaker 2: and people he knows are trouble.
Speaker 3: When we would go out with specific individuals, Sho would
Speaker 3: always pop off right. I would always feel the needs
Speaker 3: jump in and participate.
Speaker 1: But the vibes here are good.
Speaker 2: The booze is flowing, pop brownies are being passed around,
Speaker 2: and the music is pumping.
Speaker 3: It was turned down for what, Well, John like that
Speaker 3: song just came out.
Speaker 2: Trung and On make a bee line to the beer
Speaker 2: pong table, where they proceed to completely bite it.
Speaker 3: We played horribly because didn't we sat on that table? Yeah,
Speaker 3: we had to sit on the table man, which told
Speaker 3: like we didn't make any shots. It was embarrassing.
Speaker 1: Trung is so happy to have his brother here.
Speaker 2: It's been so long since they've simply hung out like
Speaker 2: this as brothers. Around them, everyone is getting drunk or
Speaker 2: high or both. Troun is fully in the moment. He's
Speaker 2: making the rounds a beer in his hand. For a while,
Speaker 2: he loses track of his girlfriend Monica, that is until
Speaker 2: she heads toward him, clearly upset.