In South Korea, a newspaper company and a playwrights’ association put out a call for new works each year, in a contest called “Literary Arts for the New Year.” The Young Korean Playwrights Series loses no time in giving Japanese audiences their first opportunity to view prizewinning works from the play category of this contest, which is a gateway to success for young writers.
The aims of this series are to showcase the talent of writers who will play a key role in the future of South Korean theater, to provide an opportunity for actors, writers and audiences alike to think about the future of Japanese and South Korean drama, and to share contemporary social problems with audiences through the incisive insights into society that are a common feature of the prizewinning works. This, the third in the series, features three short works on the theme “Whirlpools in the Imagination: the Raw Reality of the Modern Age,” which won awards in 2013. They depict an aspect of modern life, in which joy and pain greater than reality is sometimes found in delusions, myths, the Internet, and games.

Yearning for Fairy Tales
Written by KIM Sungje, translated by KIM Seil, directedby ARAKAWA Takayo

Senility Hamlet, Sadness Village, Depression County
Written by LEE Mikyung, translated by LEE Jiyoung, directed by SUZUKI Atsuto

The Outrageous Roommate
Written by IM Unjung, translated by NAKATSUKA Emiko, directed by YOSHIMURA Yuu

Performers: KUNUGI Tatsuya, SAKAMOTO Yoshie, NAMAI Mizuki, HONKE Norihisa, and others
Staff: KANEDA Mitsuru, KUBONIWA Naoko, SUZUKI Mirano, LEE Yuni, and others
Coordinator: SEAMI project