Jaha Koo in Cuckoo (Progress Festival), Photo by Wolf Silveri

Presented by The Theatre Centre for the 2020 Progress Festival, Jaha Koo’s Cuckoo is an informative, whimsical and melancholic multi-media presentation. Weaving his own personal experiences into this meditation on the 1997 South Korean financial crisis, he reflects on the emotional consequences of socio-economic catastrophe.

With archival video and personal anecdotes, Koo examines the psyche of young South Koreans who, like himself, came of age during the period of the IMF rescue plan. The content doesn’t delve too deeply into the complexities of the crisis, but fixates on the psychological cost. Suicide features prominently. There are some video sequences that, while not excessively graphic, contain some disturbing sights. Continue Reading