SEOUL, August 13 (AJP) - Sejong Center for the Performing Arts will stage the Korean premiere of "Sumire Hair Salon," the final work in playwright and director Chong Wishing's trilogy on Zainichi Koreans, from Sept. 12 to Oct. 3 at Sejong M Theater in central Seoul.
The play closes a trilogy Chong developed over roughly two decades, following "Like a Flower Blooming in a Field" and "Yakiniku Dragon" the 2008 family drama that won him the Asahi Performing Arts Award Grand Prix, the Yomiuri Theater Award Grand Prix and the Kinokuniya Theater Award the following year.
Set in 1965 in a coal-mining village in Kyushu called "Arirang Pass," the play follows Sumi, a Zainichi Korean woman who runs a small barbershop and dreams of opening a hair salon under her own name.
Around her are family members who have each made different choices to survive: a husband who took Japanese nationality, a brother-in-law left unable to work in the mines after an injury, a younger sister just starting married life and a father who refuses to give up his Korean nationality.
An explosion at the mine upends their fragile daily life, forcing each of them to confront loss and separation in their own way.
The story draws on a documented history. There were 79,702 Korean laborers working at mines across Kyushu and Yamaguchi as of March 1945, accounting for about 27 percent of all miners there, according to Sejong Center.
More than 80,000 Zainichi Koreans later boarded ships to North Korea between 1959 and 1984 under a repatriation campaign that promised them a "paradise on earth."
The play uses that history to ask how divisions by nationality and origin continue to echo today.
Ahead of the run, Sejong Center will host a lecture on Sept. 2 by Hosaka Yuji, a scholar of modern Korea-Japan relations, on the forced mobilization of Korean laborers and the history of Japan's mining villages.
Chong, a second-generation Zainichi Korean, was born in 1957 in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture. He began his career with the theater troupe Kuro Tento before becoming a founding member of Shinjuku Ryozanpaku in 1987.
He won the Kishida Kunio Drama Award, Japan's top playwriting prize, in 1993 for "The Terayama," and has since worked across theater, film and television. His screenwriting credits include "All Under the Moon" and "Blood and Bones."
His work has previously reached Korean audiences through "Yakiniku Dragon" and other stage collaborations, including a 2015 National Changgeuk Company production that reworked a Brecht play into traditional Korean music theater.
The Korean premiere brings together a 12-member cast spanning generations.
Veteran actor Jeon Moo-song, who has worked on stage and screen since his 1964 debut, plays Hong-gil, an older man who refuses to give up his Korean nationality despite the pressures around him.
Choi Ji-yeon plays Sumi, the barbershop owner at the center of the story, while Jeon Kuk-hyang plays her older sister Hatsumi. Jeon's character's partner, labor union chief Omura, is played by Shin Hyun-jong, who is her real-life spouse as well.
The rest of the ensemble includes Song Young-joo, Seo Dong-gab, Kim Dong-won, Hong Won-ki, Lee Seung-woo, Kim Moon-sik, Song Seok-geun and Kim Ji-hoon.
The production is written and directed by Chong, with stage design by veteran designer Lee Tae-sub.
"Sumire Hair Salon" runs about 180 minutes, including a 20-minute intermission.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. (1030 GMT) Tuesday through Friday and 3 p.m. on weekends, with no Monday shows. The Sept. 24 performance moves to 3 p.m., and there is no show on Sept. 25.
Tickets, priced from 40,000 to 80,000 won, are available through Sejong Center's website, NOL Ticket, Yes24 and Melon Ticket.
AJP Takeaway
· Sejong Center for the Performing Arts will stage the Korean premiere of “Sumire Beauty Salon” from Sept. 12 to Oct. 3 at Sejong M Theater in central Seoul.· The play is the final work in playwright-director Chong Wishing’s Zainichi Korean trilogy, following “Like a Flower Blooming in a Field” and “Yakiniku Dragon.”
· Set in a Kyushu mining village in 1965, the story follows a Zainichi Korean family facing nationality, survival, loss and separation after a coal mine explosion.
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