Haribo Kimchi
Powerhouse Parramatta
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.
