Experimental theater performance, 2018

Copyright of all images Ⓒ Park Kyong Ju

Title: Statute of Limitations

Production: Salad Theater (www.salad.or.kr)

Performance Language: Korean, English

Year Created: 2018

Premiere: February 6, 2018

Playwriter & Director: Park Kyong Ju

Length: 70 minutes

Genre: Live streaming contemporary post- drama theatre

Documentary Video & Reportage: Park Kyong Ju

Live Streaming Media Director: Sungsuk Suk

Lighting Director: Singh Anima

Sound Director: Hizon Gil

Live Streaming Camera: Minwoo Kim

Public relations: Anggahan Nassier

Starring: De Mateo Lorna, Youngju Ha , Joenic France, Park Kyong Ju

Synopsis

The characters in this play attempt to solve the puzzle behind the death of a female Vietnamese migrant that occurred 10 years prior.

Trần Thanh Lan came to Korea in January, 2008 as a marriage migrant but was forced to divorce 5 days later. While waiting for the divorce to be settled, she fell to her death from her apartment under unknown circumstances.

The death of Trần Thanh Lan caused uproar in Vietnam as her body was cremated without the consent of her family, sent to Vietnam by air cargo, and delivered to her mother via the local courier service. Her mother went to Korea to demand that the police investigate the true circumstances behind her daughter’s death, but the police closed the case without conducting a proper investigation.

<#Statute of Limitations> is the result of 2 years of investigative research into some of the questions surrounding the incident following a visit in 2016 to Trần Thanh Lan’s mother, Huỳnh Kim Anh, in Can Tho, Vietnam by playwright and producer, Kyongju Park.

The performance criticizes the fact that the initial investigation by the police at the time of Trần Thanh Lan’s death 10 years ago was insufficient and failed to reveal the cause of her death as the sites and evidence that should have been preserved immediately after the incident had disappeared. Kyongju Park brings an investigation of the suspect-site to the modern stage. Video records relating to the incident and video recordings of interviews with the people directly involved are used in the performance.

2018 is the year that the statute of limitations of the suspects behind the death of Trần Thanh Lan expires.

In the words of Kyongju Park,

“Today, the suspects may be free, but Korean society is not free from its sense of debt to the deceased for failing to unearth the truth. It is my hope to bring peace to the soul of Trần Thanh Lan through this performance.”

Plot

The police and chorus are preparing for an investigation together with the victim, Trần Thanh Lan. While laying out the evidence necessary for an investigation, the hidden stories of Trần Thanh Lan unfold. As the performance comes to conclusion, the sirens of police cars and an ambulance can be heard… Will the police be able to succeed in uncovering the crime committed by the suspect and bring him to the site of investigation? This work causes the audience to creatively fill in the missing pieces with an open ending.