Twenty pieces of puzzle on love contained in searching questions

“When we met, it was perfect. We were like two halves reuniting again, after a long separation.

It was wonderful.

It was as if the South and the North opened their boundaries and became unified.”

despite the title, has nothing to do with Korea: it is simply a metaphor for the difficulty that individuals have in finding harmony and love for one another. The first scene for example is nothing more than a dialogue between a middle-aged woman and an offstage interrogatory voice wanting to know why the woman is seeking a divorce. The answer is simple and direct: “There is no love between us. And never has been”. is a play consisting of around twenty unrelated scenes that compose an interesting kaleidoscope about the desire of love, or the madness of love. The interchangeability of the stories reflects the various relationships between man and woman, man and man, woman and woman; and between them and their children. Even when its tone varies from the farcical scene to the grotesque, tragic and absurd scene, the basic theme remains: what is love? Even if love brings pain and suffering to most of its characters, they are ready to live and die for it. The end of each scene leaves us with bigger question about love or the social and family bond than their beginning, and many of the scenes end in uncertainty; perhaps to give the public the choice to find their proper answers or to let open the door for new questions.

Director’s Notes

Following the performance of (Cet enfant) (2002) in March 2015 - a tale by Joël Pommerat about a parent and a child, the author’s more recent work (2013) was first performed in March 2016 at the Nunbit Theater. This new work asks us, once again, the very common yet unavoidable questions about ‘what is love’ through clichés in the dialogues of its characters. Twenty detailed fictional scenes with neither beginning nor end will stimulate the imagination of the audience and let them understand sometimes funny and sometimes painful domain of darkness. Although set in everyday life, some aspects are hidden and some are revealed to make the story more poetic and mysterious. We will continue to search for other possibilities to make use of various areas on stage, in order to remind us that the boundaries between desires and dreams, and reality and fiction, are essentially non-existent.

Writer

Joël Pommerat

Joël Pommerat was born in Roanne, France, in 1963. He discovered his passion for theater at the age of 16 when he left school. At the age of 18, he joined the theater troupe Théâtre de la Mascara and became a stage actor, but after having doubts about the occupation, he focused on writing from the age of 23 and studied on his own for four years to become a playwright. He directed his first original play, , in 1990 which was performed at the Théâtre Clavel in Paris. Taking this as an opportunity, he founded his theater group Louis Brouillard in the same year.

He was awarded Prize for the Best New Creation in French from the Critic’s Syndicate for his work in 2006; Moliere Awards for Best Theater Company in 2010 for and Best Theater Company and Best Playwright in 2011 for . In 2013 he won multiple awards for ; Beaumarchais/Le Figaro Prize for Best Author, the Prize for Best Show at the Palmares Theater, and the Prize for the Best New Play in French Language from the Critic’s Syndicate.

And in 2016, he won three more Molières Awards; Best Playwright, Best Director of a Public Show, and Best Show in a Public Theater for his work <Ça ira (1) Fin de Louis>, a masterpiece covering the French Revolution.

Translation / Dramaturg

Hye-gyong Im

Hye-gyong Im co-founded the Theatre Francophonies in 2009 with Cathy Rapin. She’s an active translator and drama critic. She has translated in French and published in France Korean literature, especially Korean plays, with Cathy Rapin since the 1990s.. She is currently a professor at the Department of French Language and Culture at Sookmyung Women’s University.

Company

Theatre Francophonies

The Theatre Francophonies was established by French literature scholar Hye-gyong Im and Cathy Rapin in 2009, two artists who’ve worked closely together over the past 20 years to translate many Korean plays into French. Following their first performance, <Orphan Muses>, in 2009, the company has translated and introduced many Francophone plays, such as <Glass Bead Eyes, <I Was Home and I Was Waiting for it to Rain>, <The Reunification of the Two Koreas>>, <Only the End of the World>, <Stage Game>, and <This Child>.
Much of their work introduces to Korea trends in French theater, but they also try to build connections from Korea with the Francophone world.

Credits

Writer              Joël Pommerat

Director           Cathy Rapin

Dramaturge       Hye-gyong Im

Translation       Hye-gyong Im

Assistant Director  Jeong-heon Yang

Stage           Chae-sun Shim

Lighting        Cheol-hee Kim

Costume        So-young Park

Make up        Keong-sook Jang

Composer, Sound Designer & Voice Da-oul Choe

Graphic Design   Jae-heon Park

Photo             Sun-joun Kang

Webmaster, Photo  Bo-kyeong Kim

Lighting operator  You-jin Shin

Sound operator    Ji-hoe Noh

Surtitles          Su-zi Jung

Programmation & Marketing  Ji-eun Lee

(Moch Company)

Ticket      Hye-lang Cho (Jalhanda Project)

Producer   Jung-suk Im (Shownlife Company)

Production  Theatre Francophonies

Cast         Hyeon-mi Pak, Jung-yong Jeon, Yeo-jin Seong, Na-jin Jeong, Shi-yeong Kim, kyeong-ku Pak