What is a ‘House’ to You?

About the performance

This is a story of an old woman living in a city. She has been living in her house for all her life, loving it as herself. As part of a city redevelopment project, the house is about to be demolished. In an attempt to protect her memories and traces of the past days, the old woman keeps on fighting to resist against those who try to demolish the house. She unexpectedly experiences a miraculous moment, but in the end, the woman decides to leave the house. To many of us, a ‘house’ has lots of meanings. The house, village and the city grow and develop excessively, regardless of the intentions of those living there. The performance Invisible City (Subtitle: 81 Seonbguk-dong) reflects on our question of a ‘house’ in the context of urban development.

Synopsis

A mysterious animal comes in, looks around the house and disappears. In a house on stage, an old lady is calmly having her daily life. Redevelopers bang the door. This black comedy depicts the old lady’s lonely fight against the forced demolition plan of her house. To protect her house, past days, fond memories and future promises, the old lady starts fighting resolutely against those who are about to demolish her house and against heavy equipment. Her fight finally ends with an unexpected moment of miracle and fantasy. The dialogue between the old lady, who does not want to leave her house and town preserving her long-term memories and history, and the real estate agent, who keeps asking her to sell her house, make the audience to think about city people who are put on the boundary of ‘Home’ and ‘House’.

Seoulkedam

Founded in 2010, the theater company Seoulkedam raises questions about today’s era by shedding new light on absurd phenomena of cities in the form of strange stories. Freeing themselves from the traditional theater space, the company talks about ‘personal problems in a community’ through the new forms of plays on the streets or specific sites. By means of creation and performances, they try to understand the anxiety and pain of those who are isolated and focus on hidden issues. They pursue complex and multidisciplinary performances by making use of the characteristics, meanings and signs of diverse alternative spaces. In parallel, they breathe the meaningfulness of community life and artistic vigor into urban redevelopment areas and dying urban spaces through their space regeneration projects.

Credits

Director ｜ Young-bong You
Producer ｜ Jung-eun Lee
PR ｜ Na-yeon Ko
Set design ｜ Chang-hyeok Mun, Min-young Lee
Light Design ｜ Dae-won Jung
Music ｜ Jin-hwa Lee
Cast ｜ Sung-hwan Kim, Sun-ah Oh, Deok-ho Gil, Jin Her