The Geochang International Theatre Festival opened its curtain on July 31, marking its 36th edition. Centered on Susengdae in Geochang, South Gyeongsang Province, the festival offers a singular experience: theatre encountered not in a conventional venue but in spaces that breathe alongside nature. Here, forests, streams, and historically resonant sites become a single stage, where companies from Korea and abroad present their work. True to its name as an international festival, artists from around the world gather in one place, connecting different languages and cultures through the shared language of theatre. Participating this year as a volunteer, I found myself face to face with sides of the festival that an ordinary seat in the audience rarely reveals.
Performance Venues in Harmony with Nature
Geobuk Theatre
At Susengdae stands a boulder rising from the stream whose silhouette is said to resemble a turtle — hence its name, "Geobuk Bawi" (Turtle Rock). Geobuk Theatre is an outdoor performance space built to face this rock, and it serves as the festival's signature venue. This year it hosts the opening and closing ceremonies as well as productions by Theatre Company Keundeul<Jjillekkot (Wild Rose)>, Theatre Company Mosineunsaramdeul<Chunseom's Lie>, and Hatangse<Gulliver's Travels: Zoom In Out>. The chance to watch performances enveloped by forest and stream is, without question, Geobuk Theatre's greatest draw.
Theatre Company Keundeul's〈Jjillekkot〉, which I watched at Geobuk Theatre, is a madangguk — a traditional open-air folk play — carrying the message that "listening to what your body and mind are telling you" is the foundation of both physical health and happiness. Audience-participation elements were woven throughout, adding the pleasure of performers and spectators building the show together. The response from older audience members was especially fervent; laughter and applause rolled on without pause, and the infectious, celebratory energy that only madangguk can produce was palpable throughout.
Theatre Company Mosineunsaramdeul's〈Chunseom's Lie〉takes Chunseom — a figure largely forgotten within the classic novel Hong Gildong-jeon — and places her at the center, refracting a familiar story through an entirely new lens. What stayed with me most was the image of Chunseom choosing and steering her own life despite the era's rigid constraints on a woman born into bondage. The work refuses to reduce her to a self-sacrificing mother; instead, it traces with quiet care the process by which she wrestles with the meaning of her own existence and her maternity as a full human being. The narrative — imagination filling the silences the classic left behind — combined with the cast's assured performances drew me in completely, and the production offered the particular pleasure of seeing a well-known story made strange and new.
Guyeon Seowon
Pass through Gwansuру and step inside Guyeon Seowon, and a tranquil landscape of traditional hanok architecture unfolds before you. Using the historic buildings and their courtyard as its stage, Guyeon Seowon becomes the very backdrop of each performance, lending the work a depth of atmosphere no purpose-built theatre could replicate. This year the venue presents Theatre Company Asirangna's〈Malgeum-ssi〉, Pansori Ajitu Nollaebox's〈Pansori Short Story: Hyeon Jin-geon Edition〉, and creative collective Geogi Gamyeon's mask theatre piece〈Twelfth Night〉. The seowon's hushed, contemplative atmosphere blended naturally with each production, offering a charm that no indoor theatre could provide.
Theatre Company Asirangna's〈My Malgeum-ssi〉tells the story of a wife living with dementia and the husband who remains steadfastly by her side. The portrait of two people whose memories slowly dissolve while their feeling for each other holds firm is rendered with quiet restraint, leaving a deep and lasting impression. Because the production chose to unfold the small moments of everyday life with delicacy rather than reach for spectacular staging, it felt all the more real — and the ache it left behind lingered long after the curtain came down.
Theatre from Around the World
True to its international ambitions, this year's festival once again welcomed companies from across the globe. Productions from Japan, the United States, Indonesia, and beyond took the stage, offering audiences a chance to encounter the performing arts of many different cultures in a single place. Among the international invited works were Cotton Candy Company (USA) with 〈Packrat〉 and Papermoon Puppet Theatre (Indonesia) with 〈The Beetle's Story〉. With so many distinct cultural traditions and performance styles gathered together, the festival's international character felt more vivid than ever.
Particular attention was drawn to a Japanese company's production of 〈Othello〉, which had previously been invited to open the Festival d'Avignon Off — one of the world's foremost performing-arts festivals. Reinterpreting Shakespeare's classic through original direction and intense physical expression, the production leapt over the language barrier entirely: the performers' movement, the music, and the staging alone conveyed the work's emotions and ideas with striking clarity. The sustained applause that followed the final bow was a reminder, once again, that theatre is an art capable of reaching across borders and languages to touch its audience.
Nature, humanity, and theatre. The Geochang International Theatre Festival is in the business of creating the moments when these three things come together most beautifully. This piece has barely scratched the surface of that joy and the energy of being there in person — but the festival continues through August 9. I hope many more audiences will find their way to this extraordinary stage in Geochang, South Gyeongsang Province.