Haribo Kimchi

Haribo Kimchi transports us to a pojangmacha, one of the typical late-night street food stalls lining the streets of South Korea. Throughout the performance, Jaha Koo recounts intimate, bittersweet, and surreal micro-stories while preparing a meal live on stage. Armed with a boundless and visually inventive humour, he enlists us in his culinary journey, a wandering through memories and their history, for all those who feel the quiet pull of their roots.

The surprising flavour of seaweed soup, the sharp sound of a knife slicing through cucumber, the hiss and sizzle of mushrooms on a scorching hob draw the audience into a richly multisensory experience centred on taste and tradition.

The director introduces three virtual characters – a snail, an eel, and a gummy bear – who explore food as a place of refuge. Through a sequence of personal, disarmingly tender and absurd stories, they recount the evolution of kimchi culture, the bitter pain of unadulterated racism, the shame of trying to “blend in,” and the deep umami taste that spells a return home to childhood.

Following Cuckoo (2018) – the second instalment of the Hamartia trilogy, in which he probed the long-term repercussions of imperialism in East Asia – the South Korean theatre auteur and composer Jaha Koo returns to the festival with his latest creation. Within a hybrid environment that fuses music, cutting-edge technology, pioneering video, and digital/virtual performers, Koo reflects on the notion of cultural assimilation, its pulverising force, its inherent conflicts and paradoxes. In a trailblazing performance that caters to all senses, he serves up slices of life marinated in sweet-and-sour melancholy.