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Jaha Koo: Haribo Kimchi

Meeting in a South Korean snack bar, three characters take us on a culinary and cultural journey in an exceptional performance that plays with all the senses.

More details for Purcell Room
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Floating aromas of a steamy simmering soup, the sharp sound of a knife quickly slicing spring onions, the hissing and sizzling of mushrooms on a scorching fire.

In Haribo Kimchi, we find ourselves in a pojangmacha, a typical late-night snack bar that can be found scattered across the streets of South Korea.

There we meet several lost souls who take us on a culinary journey, exploring food culture as a form of language that reveals the structure of a society.

In several absurdist and touching anecdotes, they recount the diaspora of Kimchi culture, cannibalism during the great famine, the sour pain of unadulterated racism and the deep umami taste of home.

After the Hamartia Trilogy (2021), in which he delved into the far-reaching imperialism in East Asia, the South Korean theatre maker and composer Jaha Koo returns with his newest creation.

In his typical hybrid style, combining music, cutting-edge video and robotic performers, the artist reflects on cultural assimilation with all its conflicts and paradoxes. In an exceptional performance that plays with all the senses, he alters our perception of food for good.

Credits
Jaha Koo concept, text, direction, music, sound and video
Jaha Koo, Seri, Toad and Haribo performers
Dries Douibi dramaturgy
Eunkyung Jeong scenography and media operation
Pol Heyvaert artistic advice
Korneel Coessens technical coordination
Bart Huybrechts and Babette Poncelet technique
Idella Craddock cuckoo hacking and toad development
Wim Clapdorp production coordination
CAMPO production

Co-production: Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Rideau de Bruxelles; Theater Utrecht, SPRING festival (Utrecht); Festival d’Automne à Paris, Théâtre de la Bastille (Paris); Tangente St-Pölten; & Espoo theatre (Finland); Kampnagel International Summer Festival (Hamburg); Sophiensaele (Berlin); Meet You Festival (Valladolid); Bunker (Ljubljana); National Theatre and Concert Hall Taipei; The Divine Comedy International Theater Festival/Teatr Laznia Nowa (Kraków); and Perpodium

With the support of the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government via Cronos Invest and the Flemish Government. The London presentation of Haribo Kimchi is generously supported by the Government of Flanders.

Need to know

Age guidance
For ages 13+
Event information

This performance contains live cooking on stage. There are intense smells of food being prepared. The following foods are used in the performance: cucumber, carrots, chilli peppers, onion, garlic, seaweed, curly parsley, mint leaves, peanut oil, egg, fish sauce and kimchi.

Allergen information: peanut oil, garlic, onion, chilli pepper and egg are used in this performance.

Close up of artist chopping jelly items under red lighting on a chopping board
Bea Borgers
View larger image 1 of 4. Close up of artist chopping jelly items under red lighting on a chopping board
Artist wearing a black apron, cooking for two people sat at a counter in front of screens
Bea Borgers
View larger image 2 of 4. Artist wearing a black apron, cooking for two people sat at a counter in front of screens
Plate with rice, burger patty and frogs made out of jelly
Jaha Koo
View larger image 3 of 4. Plate with rice, burger patty and frogs made out of jelly
Artist serving under a red food stall with two people sat at the counter, next to two large screens
Jaha Koo in his latest work Haribo Kimchi. Photo by Bea Borgers
View larger image 4 of 4. Artist serving under a red food stall with two people sat at the counter, next to two large screens

For your visit

This event is held at the Purcell Room Southbank Centre

The Purcell Room is located in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, which is open from 90 minutes before events start until they finish. It’s closed at all other times.

Concrete interior of Purcell Room entrance at Southbank Centre View larger image

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The Purcell Room is an auditorium located within our Queen Elizabeth Hall.

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Food & drink

From coffee to cocktails, filling favourites to fine dining, plus some of London’s best street food – it’s all here at the Southbank Centre.

Places to eat and drink whilst you’re here