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"There's a lot of buzz around issues like artificial intelligence (AI), the Korean Wave and the Kospi, but young people in their 20s are actually feeling threatened across their entire lives by high housing costs and shrinking job opportunities. I wanted to tell the stories of those in the blind spots."
That is how Kang Hoon-gu, director of the theater company Gongnori Club, explained in a recent interview with Seoul Economic Daily why he staged his new play "Mimi's Faint Romance." Running at the Mapo Art Center through the 7th, the work is set in a one-room district in Changcheon-dong, Mapo-gu, and tells the story of Mimi, a 23-year-old recluse who lives cut off from society.
Mimi lives off her boyfriend in his roughly five-pyeong studio, absorbed only in horror films. One day, when her boyfriend suddenly disappears, she takes up door-to-door cosmetics sales to go looking for him. As she meets strangers and reconnects with the world, she confronts her own wounds and trauma and grows in the process.
The work is also the debut piece of playwright Cho Min-song, born in 2003. Cho, a student at the university where Kang teaches, sent the script by email, and Kang, who saw its potential, brought it to the stage after about two years of development.
"Life in your 20s, caught between adolescence and adulthood, gets relatively little attention both in society and in artistic works," Kang said. "I wanted to use theater to shed light on what worries and pains these people carry as they live." He added, "I myself had a period in my 20s when I shut myself in at home for a year. Anxiety, uncertainty and helplessness about the future are emotions everyone experiences at least once, or is experiencing even now, so I think many audience members will be able to relate."
Gongnori Club has steadily presented works dealing with the realities of contemporary young people, establishing itself as a leader in "young adult theater." "Burgundy Mooky Channel Opening Remarks" depicted the desires and frustrations of young people running YouTube channels, and "Phone Seller" portrayed the harsh reality faced by a high school student who sells phones to friends to make money. "Dried Peppers and Peach-Scented Lipstick" addressed the conflict and reconciliation between a young sexual minority and their family.
Although they look critically at social problems, the works are surprisingly light in tone. Laughter never stops in the audience. "The more serious and dark the story, the more it needs to be told cheerfully to strike a balance," Kang said. "I try to handle it in an entertaining way so the audience can immerse themselves in the story while keeping an appropriate distance."
Kang is also drawing attention as a young creator who does not settle for established theatrical conventions. He majored in political science and diplomacy as well as Korean language and literature at Korea University, where he began his theater club activities, and made his debut as a playwright in 2017 with "Miindo," based on the forgery controversy surrounding artist Chun Kyung-ja. He later founded Gongnori Club and has staged original plays every year.
He also expressed his affection for writing plays. "Staging foreign classics is fine, but it's a shame that in Korea, which is so rich in creativity, our own plays aren't actually at the center of the performing arts scene," Kang said. "I hope more original plays gain attention and make it to the stage."
He is currently writing a new play that the Seoul Metropolitan Theater plans to present at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in the second half of the year. The work is based on the life of a famous female actor. "I want to keep doing work that puts on stage the issues that people living in this time worry about most right now," Kang said.
