Haribo Kimchi

Jaha Koo

(South Korea)

8 – 11 Jan

Powerhouse Parramatta

$49 TIX

A sweet-sour Korean slice of life served hot.

With the slice of a knife and the sizzle of a pan, South Korean theatremaker Jaha Koo invites audiences to a pojangmacha, a traditional late-night Korean street-food stall. As he prepares Korean classics live, screens, music, video projections and animations (featuring a robotic eel, a singing snail and a gummy bear) accompany and complement the story.

While chopping and frying with skilful ease, Jaha unravels absorbing, amusing and absurdist anecdotes about recent Korean history and his own relocation to Europe, the land of Haribo gummies. The title captures the central paradox: kimchi, fermented, ancient and deeply Korean, set against the European confection he only came to love after moving to Belgium. Identity itself, he argues, ferments – it transforms, shifts, and comes into focus over time. 

The recipient of the 2026 International Ibsen Award – the first Asian artist and youngest ever to win what is regarded as the Nobel Prize of theatre – Jaha Koo delivers a multimedia, multi-sensory experience that serves up tasty snacks and poignant reflections on migration, identity, racism and the meaning of home.

Co-presented with Powerhouse Parramatta

Government Partners

Credits

Concept, text, direction, music, sound & video – Jaha Koo

Performance – Gona, Haribo, Eel, Jaha Koo & two guests

Dramaturgy – Dries Douibi

Scenography, research collaboration & media operation – Eunkyung Jeong

Artistic advice Pol Heyvaert technical coordination – Korneel Coessens

Technique – Bart Huybrechts, Babette Poncelet & Jasse Vergauwe

Production coordination – Wim Clapdorp

English proofreading – Jason Wrubell

Snail animation – Vincent Lynen

Production – CAMPO

Hero image photography – Jaha Koo

Coproduction – Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), Rideau de Bruxelles, Theater Utrecht, SPRING festival (Utrecht), Festival d’Automne à Paris, Théâtre de la Bastille (Paris), Tangente St. Pölten – Festival für Gegenwartskultur, & Espoo theatre (Espoo), International Summer Festival Kampnagel (Hamburg), Sophiensaele (Berlin), Meet You Festival (Valladolid), Bunker (Ljubljana), National Theatre and Concert Hall Taipei, The Divine Comedy International Theater Festival / Teatr Łaźnia Nowa (Kraków) & Perpodium

With the support of the taxshelter of the Belgian Federal Government via Cronos Invest & the Flemish Government

The prototype of the eel was developed as part of Innovation: Lab's funnel in co-production with Theater Utrecht and creative technologists Adriaan Wormgoor & Willem Vooijs.

Important information

The performance features video of street protests, semi-blurred video of victims of military violence and loud music.

Recommended for audiences aged 16+.

Accessibility

Performed in English and Korean with English surtitles.