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PAMS

  • Theater
“You can't make a life out of not getting slapped in the face” theatre, definitely
  • 10-15(Thu) 19:30 / 10-16(Fri) 19:30
  • Arko Arts Theater-Small Hall
Introduction to the work

“You Can't Make a Life Out of Not Getting Slapped in the Face” is a performance based on the real life of Saekja, a first-generation transgender woman born in 1957, and the history of Korea’s queer community. Through her own testimony on stage, the performance traces the history of a body shaped by the forces of modern Korean history, such as the US military presence, military dictatorship, the sex industry, and the HIV/AIDS crisis. Through decades of violence, Saekja built both a life and a stage career, carrying experiences of loss layered with glory. Within the changing queer politics of East Asia in the 1990s, she continues to forge connections with younger generations.

Presented through humor, show, and personal testimony, the performance unfolds the many chapters of Saekja’s life—from running away from home in middle school, her time in the Pagoda Theater, a motel room in Donam-dong, Itaewon, and eventually on to Japan. Her body functions as a living archive of modern Korean history and queer history.

Blurring the boundary between stage and reality, the work moves beyond personal recollection to summon the past and the collective memory of survival. Through a body that has refused to disappear despite violence and stigma, the performance gives voice to the survival, solidarity, and history of Korea’s transgender community.

theatre, definitely theatre, definitely

The theater group ‘theatre, definitely’ focuses on social disasters, marginalized deaths in society and the arts, and queer lives. Using theater as a medium of resistance against censorship, hatred, discrimination, and exclusion, the group embraces the theatrical illusion that exists between stage and audience while exploring ways for language to extend beyond the stage into the world. To that end, its works move fluidly between the registers of public discourse and deeply personal testimony. Rather than approaching urgent issues obliquely, the group speaks directly about the hatred, exclusion, and violence unfolding at this very moment—or acts within the very places and contexts where it occurs.

Here is a table explaining the program details. It consists of choreography/direction, audience age, schedule, performance venue, audience interaction, performance time, premiere, admission fee, and language.
Written by Saekja, Khoo Jahye Performed b Saekja
Directed & Prompted by Khoo Jahye Producer Kim Jini
Dramaturg ruin Sung Mean Pae Stage Manager Lee Hyojin
Scenography KimJu Seulki Sound Morceauxx
Operation Ryu Hye-young, KimJu Seulki Choreography Coaching Choi Kisub
Sing Language Interpretation Iraebom (Myung Hye Jin) Photography Hyejeong
Archival Video unionc Translation Hoyoung Moon
Instagram Instagram Duration 95min,
Tickets 40,000 won Accessibility Korean Subtitles, English Subtitles
Age Limit Ages 7 and above Conversation with Artists 15th Oct(Thu) 19:30
Photo introduction