South Korean theatre-performance artist Jaha Koo brings The History of Korean Western Theatre to PuSh Festival, January 23 and 24

The multimedia documentary-style work interweaves personal stories with historical, political, and sociological facts

By Gail Johnson

Jaha Koo in The History of Korean Western Theatre. Photo by Leontien Allemeersch

PuSh International Performing Arts Festival presents The History of Korean Western Theatre on January 23 and 24 at 7:30 pm at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre

JAHA KOO IS a South Korean theatre-performance artist, composer, and videographer whose multimedia work incorporates his own music, video, text, and robotic objects. In The History of Korean Western Theatre, coming to the 2025 PuSh Festival, he interweaves personal narratives with historical, political, and sociological facts.

The documentary theatre piece is part of Koo’s Hamartia Trilogy, which also includes Lolling and Rolling and Cuckoo, which looked at South Korea’s past and present respectively. (“Hamartia” means “tragic error” in Greek. See Stir’s feature on Lolling and Rolling here.) Together, the three works offer an exploration of the political landscape, colonial history, and cultural identity of East Asia.

The History of Korean Western Theatre focuses on structural issues in Korean society and how history affects people’s lives today. Through archival materials and vibrant projections, it examines how the suppression of local culture under Western assimilation has shaped Korean theatre and the national identity of South Korea. Koo imagines a future free of cultural erasure.

Presented in Korean with English surtitles, The History of Korean Western Theatre is produced by CAMPO, a Belgium-based arts centre.

Koo majored in theatre studies at Korea National University of Arts and earned a master’s degree at DAS Theatre in Amsterdam in 2016. 

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