One can only conjecture what it costs writer-actress Zoë Kim to bare her soul and tell her story in “Did You Eat? (밥 먹었니?)”
Perhaps it’s cathartic. One certainly hopes so.
In any case, Kim holds nothing back. She delivers an unflinching and altogether extraordinary performance in her autobiographical solo play about her nightmarish childhood and early adolescence in South Korea, filled with physical and psychological abuse, not to mention neglect. “Being ignored is worse than being invisible,” Kim says.
Her monologue is addressed to “you,” and that “you” is Kim’s younger self. That she would survive to tell the tale was by no means a sure thing.
As described in “Did You Eat? (밥 먹었니?)”, her father — who wanted a son, not a daughter — subjected her to mind-boggling cruelty when she was a child, including daily beatings and vicious criticisms. (The play is recommended for audiences 13 and older.) Her mother failed to protect her, or even to believe her.
After Kim moved to the United States to attend boarding school, and later, when she launched an acting career, she tried to talk with her mother about the trauma she had experienced. But her mother was only interested in the money Kim sent home while constantly complaining it was not enough.
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At one point in the play, Kim describes the time her father came to the US and pulled her out of school, taking her to a motel with every intention of killing her before ultimately relenting. But she had to live with the trauma, expressed in a plaintive question: “Will I ever be OK?”
Directed by Chris Yejin, “Did You Eat? (밥 먹었니?)” is a coproduction by CHUANG Stage, a resident theater company at the Boston Center for the Arts that focuses on works by and about Asian-Americans, and Seoulful Productions, which seeks to “celebrate the culture, artistry, and voices of the Korean Diaspora through our own eyes and lived experiences.”
Kim is in near-constant motion during the 75-minute performance, with movements that range from choppy to languid to explosive to lyrical. (The choreography is by Christopher Shin). At one point, she crawls across the stage of the BCA’s Plaza Black Box Theatre, a venue whose tight confines reinforce the can’t-look-away intimacy of “Did You Eat? (밥 먹었니?)”
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In one scene, the grief that pours out of Kim is so raw, so visceral, that it feels like one of those moments in the theater when a performer is no longer acting. But it’s not all darkness. Kim is a convivial narrator, and she even gets the audience to sing along to Bon Jovi’s “Livin‘ on a Prayer.” At times Kim speaks in Korean (with English subtitles projected on a curtain) as she reenacts exchanges with her mother. Michi Zaya’s projections are used sparingly and well. Szu-Feng Chen’s scenic design, laden with silks, is simple but elegant.
Kim struggled to forge her identity as a Korean-American, but also embraced the chance to reinvent herself, noting: “I cry in Korean but laugh in English.” She went into acting, and collided with an entertainment industry that often cannot see beyond stereotypes when it comes to Asian actors.
In an essay last year in Playbill, Kim wrote that “In nearly 20 years of acting professionally, Did You Eat? (밥 먹었니?) is the first time that I’m deciding to be seen as my full authentic self, inside and out. Make-up free, no flattering lighting, messy bun, baggy clothes—prioritizing my comfort, my process, and my artistry. No other work I’ve made has ever required this level of courage, honesty, and vulnerability. It makes me feel naked and ugly and liberated and empowered, all at the same time."
She added: “This is my face. This is my work. This is me and what I have to offer the world. Get used to it because I’m done negotiating.”
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At the curtain call for Sunday afternoon’s performance of “Did You Eat? (밥 먹었니?),” Kim was smiling. Within the horrors of her play is an insistence on the right to love, and to have love at the center of her being. She’s earned that.
DID YOU EAT? (밥 먹었니?)
Written and performed by Zoë Kim. Directed by Chris Yejin. Choreography by Christopher Shin. Dramaturgy by Amrita Ramanan. Coproduction by CHUANG Stage and Seoulful Productions. At Plaza Black Box Theatre, Boston Center for the Arts. Through Nov. 30. Tickets are pay-what-you- can, with a suggested price of $30. www.chuangstage.org/did-you-eat or [email protected]
Don Aucoin can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @GlobeAucoin.