Incheon Metropolitan Theater to Stage Original Family Play ‘Bae:ung’ for Chuseok

The Incheon Metropolitan Theater (Artistic Director Lim Do-wan) will present the original family play ‘Bae:ung’ as its 98th regular performance at the Small Theater of the Incheon Culture & Arts Center from Sept. 12 to 20. Ahead of the Chuseok holiday, the work revisits the meaning of family.

[코리안투데이] Poster for the Incheon Metropolitan Theater’s original family play ‘Bae:ung’ © 장형임 기자

The Incheon Metropolitan Theater (Artistic Director Lim Do-wan) will hold ‘Bae:ung’, an original family play and its 98th regular performance, at the Small Theater of the Incheon Culture & Arts Center from Saturday, Sept. 12, through Sunday, Sept. 20. The production is written and directed by Choi Jae-seong, the theater’s training director and producing PD.

The play ‘Bae:ung’ is set in the yard of a small country house in Damyang. It follows a single day of two sons who gather after a long time upon hearing that their father, staying in a nursing hospital, is nearing his final moments. Through the brothers’ conflict as they move between memory and reality, the work quietly illuminates modern people trapped in busy daily life, who have kept postponing the feelings they hold for one another. The aim is to prompt reflection on the feelings and relationships that, under the name of family, have been set aside precisely because they felt too close.

Ahead of the main performance, the specially planned ‘Reading Stage (staged reading)’ held this past August sold out all seats on both days. Praise from audiences continued — ‘Even without an elaborate stage, every single line pierced my heart’ and ‘It made me look forward to the main performance so much already’ — confirming strong interest in the work.

For this production, actor Kim Se-gyeong, who served at the Incheon Metropolitan Theater for about 30 years before retiring as a senior member, makes a special appearance. Drawing on the acting honed over long years of guarding the company and the stage, he anchors the play by portraying the life and weight of a Korean father.

Director Choi Jae-seong, who wrote and directed the play, was awarded the ‘Grand Prize and Directing Award at the 2025 Seoul Theater Festival’. Explaining his intent, he said, ‘I thought about the tough bond called family, which does not reach us the way our hearts wish, amid each person’s circumstances,’ adding, ‘I wanted to ask how truthfully we can exist as ourselves — only when we reach the moment of seeing off someone who is leaving.’

Artistic Director Lim Do-wan said, ‘Ahead of the Chuseok holiday, we have prepared a work that citizens can relate to together with their families,’ adding, ‘I hope this performance becomes a time to reconsider the meaning of family in modern society, and to recall, each in our own way, the family who is always beside us but whom we have failed to look back on.’

The play ‘Bae:ung’ can be seen at the Small Theater of the Incheon Culture & Arts Center from Sept. 12 to 20. Detailed schedules are available on the Incheon Culture & Arts Center website.

지역 홍보대사 신청 기자양성과정 신청 코리안투데이 지부장 신청 코리안투데이 인천강화