A play co-written by Saekja, a first-generation transgender performer in Korea, and Jahye Khoo, an award-winning playwright and director, “You Can’t Make a Life Out of Not Getting Slapped in the Face” recounts Saekja’s life from the 1960s to the present. A testament to the axiom that “the personal is political”, this recounting of Saekja’s trajectory as a “homo” illustrates the blurry boundary between transness and homosexuality in modern Korea; her years working in Japan and cruising “yankees” in Seoul demonstrates how colonial forces have shaped Korean lives. Reaching the present once more through wrinkles in time, Saekja reads from the Seoul ordinance of student rights, which was for 12 years the only legal measure in Korea which banned discrimination against the LGBTQ+ population, until it was abolished in 2024. Saekja doesn’t get slapped on the face anymore, she says, but this doesn’t mean she is satisfied. Throughout the play, Saekja calls out to friends who were made to exit the world’s stage. The stage fills with fragmented tongues and bodies. With Saekja, we come to abolish the notion that a life without slaps to the face is the life we should accept.
Full translation of the play is available upon request.
- Performance dates
- August 15-18th, 2024 at Arts Space Hyehwa, Seoul, as part of the 2024 Feminist Play Festival
- March 7-13th, 2025 at ARKO Theatre, Seoul
- Written by Saekja and Jahye Khoo
- Directed by Jahye Khoo
- Starring Saekja
- Produced by collective Theatre, Definitely