You wait years for a play about North Korea, then two come along at once. Even if this piece by In-Sook Chappell lacks the imaginative wildness of Mia Chung’s You for Me for You which has just closed at the Royal Court, it shows how human passions survive even in the most oppressive regimes.
Spanning three decades, Chappell’s play charts the divided fortunes of two young lovers.
The boy, Chi-Soo, is arrogant, handsome and determined to be a screenwriter. The girl, Eun-Mi, is shy, gawky and modest. But they are united by a passion for movies and a dream of studying performing arts together in P’yongyang. The problem is that the country consists of three main classes – core, wavering and hostile – and Eun-Mi’s family belongs to the former and Chi-Soo’s to the latter. This inevitably shapes their futures but, even when Eun-Mi makes it to the capital, they remain covertly in touch and plan an escape across the Chinese border.
Like all plays about North Korea, this one depends more on second-hand stories than direct evidence. But, within the framework of a traditional love story, Chappell makes a number of strong points about the hierarchical nature of communist societies, the power of the historical enmity between North and South Korea and the danger of a presidential preoccupation with movies and their female stars. Chelsea Walker’s assured production is also acted with total conviction by Anna Leong Brophy and Chris Lew Kum Hoi as the young lovers and by Lourdes Faberes and Daniel York who double as the latter’s parents and members of P’yongyang’s elite. Not the least of the play’s merits is that it reminds us that even refugees from tyranny retain an obdurate love of their homeland.
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At Finborough theatre, London, until 30 January. Box office: 0844-847 1652.
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