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Chronicle of Alibis

Kim Jae-yeop
Wed 18.01.2023 18:30 - 23:00
KVS, Brussels
KVS BOL
Past event
18.01.2023
18:30 - 23:00
Past event

Hosted by the Korean Cultural Center in Brussels, Chronicle of Alibis is an acclaimed stage play written and directed by Kim Jae-yeop. The performance at KVS BOL on 18 January will be conducted in Korean with English surtitles. Selected as the best play in Korea in 2013, it’s the first large-scale show in the Korean language to be performed in Belgium.

Chronicle of Alibis is an autobiographical work, in which Jae-yeop uses the real names of his family. It expresses the anguish of an ordinary individual who leads a somewhat isolated existence and is unable to fully adapt to real life. The family’s story, dating from his father’s birth in 1930, is entwined with the history of his nation. It incorporates many of the major events that have marked Korean identity, including Japanese colonial rule, the country’s liberation in 1945, the Korean War in the 1950s and political dictatorship in the 1980s.

One of the Best Korean Plays Of 2013

Jae-yeop started to attract attention when he won the Annual Spring Literary Contest in 2002. Since then, he has built a reputation as a director who excels equally in dramatic expression as well as documentary works, two qualities that he combines in Chronicle of Alibis.

Currently artistic director of Dream Play These21, Jae-yeop is also a professor at Korea National University of Arts. He says of his dramatic and highly-personal work: "I wanted to make a 'good’ play even if it's not a ‘play’ rather than making up a fable in an era where direct speech is required."

'The director’s autobiographical narratives−including his dead father and his older brother−interlace a history of the Individual with a history of the Nation, harmonizing the viewpoint of history with self-introspection, overcoming dichotomy to, achieve a new political theater.'
Korea Theater Critics Association