Lolling & Rolling

performative lecture creation and direction Jaha Koo

##general.period##:: 01/29 - 30 2022
##general.room##:: Montjuïc. Sala Fabià Puigserver

Timetable

17:00

Running time

45'

Place

Sala Fabià Puigserver

Language

In Korean and English languages subtitled in Catalan

Price

€9 to €29 / Katharsis subscription €39 (3 tickets)

Accessibility

Hearing assistance via mobile phone

South Korean theatre maker, videographer and composer Jaha Koo presents The Hamartia Trilogy in the Katharsis 2022 context. In Greek, hamartia means tragic flaw or shortcoming, a concept that Koo has interwoven into completely different guises throughout his three performances Lolling & Rolling, Cuckoo and The History of Korean Western Theatre. The performances can also be enjoyed individually.

In the trilogy, the far-reaching imperialism of the past and present, and its sometimes unexpected personal impact, are the common thread. In his intelligent and haunting documentary theatre performances, Jaha Koo intertwines personal stories with historical, political and sociological facts. Often themes that entail a clash of Eastern and Western culture: from the cutting of tongue belts to make it in the West, to the heavy personal toll of Western interference in the macroeconomic field.

In South Korea, there was a big controversy concerning children’s tongue surgery for a better English pronunciation. The surgery is known as ‘lingual frenectomy’. Some people thought that it is possible to have a better English pronunciation through the surgery, especially for the “r” which is a non-existing phoneme in the Korean language. Therefore some parents have forced their children to go through the operation, even though the children had a normal tongue. Lolling & Rolling penetrates this Korean’s tragic social phenomenon related to English education.

What defines us? That is the question that is the focus of the 2022 edition of Katharsis, always associated with the origins of this special programme, in which we constantly ask ourselves what theatre is. Asking it ourselves means asking ourselves what we are as human beings and citizens. The boundaries that surround us create forms that define us politically, humanly, socially, culturally or artistically, even though we do not like some definitions, and we look for ways to change them from the fringes. This Katharsis features artists who use history, collective memory and even appearance to cross lines that make us rethink where we come from and where we are going.