Smiles Amidst Suffocating Tragedy: Jeong Eui-shin’s 'Sumire Beauty Salon' Opens in Seoul
Creatrip Team
16 days ago
Renowned Zainichi Korean playwright-director Jeong Eui-shin, known for 'Yakiniku Dragon,' brings the final installment of his three-part Zainichi Korean trilogy, 'Sumire Beauty Salon,' to Korean audiences. Running Sept 12–Oct 3 at Sejong Center M Theater, the play is set in 1960s Miike coal-mining region in Kyushu and traces 30 years in the lives of Korean residents in Japan (Zainichi Koreans) and Japanese miner families after a catastrophic mine disaster that followed Japan’s energy shift from coal to oil. Jeong researched survivors and bereaved families in Kyushu and says the story links past and present: cost-cutting and workforce reductions that undermine safety then mirror modern industrial disasters. Despite the dark subject, Jeong preserves warmth and comic relief, showing human resilience through everyday acts of eating, drinking, love and desire. The title 'Sumire' (Japanese for “violet”) symbolizes the heroine Sumi’s dream to open a women-only salon in a male-dominated barbershop corner; actors emphasize the play’s blend of ordinary lives, quiet heroism and universal family struggles.
