Deaf and Hearing Artists Join Forces in Seoul Play ‘Rewriting the World’
A new Seoul production centered on a Deaf woman’s grief, independence and relationships will bring Deaf and hearing performers together at the Mullae Arts Factory from October 29 to November 1.
A theater production examining grief, family alienation and recovery through the life of a Deaf woman is set to open in Seoul this month, bringing Deaf and hearing performers together in a work built around collaboration across languages.
The theater company Performance Creation Space said “Rewriting the World” will run from October 29 through November 1 at the Box Theater in Mullae Arts Factory. The production was selected for the Korea Disability Arts and Culture Center’s 2026 program supporting the development of disability arts.
Directed and newly created by Park Kyung-sik, the play is the second project to draw on the world established in “As If Nothing Had Happened,” a 2025 production presented by the Modu Arts Theater. Its central character, Yu-rim, is a Deaf woman who has become independent from her father while coping with the loss of her mother and a sense of exclusion within her family. The story focuses on her daily life and relationships rather than treating those experiences as background details.
The production will not unfold through a strictly chronological sequence. Instead, scenes move between the present and the past, using a fragmented structure to approach Yu-rim’s memories, emotional wounds and recovery. That form places the character’s subjective experience at the center of the stage and allows past events to surface through their continuing effect on the present.
Deaf actors Lee So-byeol and Bang Dae-han return after appearing in the earlier production. Hearing actor Eom Tae-ra also returns, while Shin Jeong-eun, Noh Yu-ra, Kim Tae-hoon, Park Seong-hwan and Seo Dong-hyun complete the cast.
The company said the work seeks to show the possibility of a more inclusive arts ecosystem by having Deaf and hearing artists collaborate through their respective languages. That approach makes the production’s working process part of its wider cultural significance: inclusion is presented not only as a subject represented onstage, but also as a practice shaped by the people making the performance.
With a story led by a Deaf woman and an ensemble spanning Deaf and hearing performers, “Rewriting the World” adds to efforts in Korean theater to broaden whose experiences are placed at the center of cultural production. Its Seoul engagement is scheduled for four days, from Thursday, October 29, to Sunday, November 1.