Jacinta Thompson,
Executive Producer of the Adelaide Festival Centre''s OzAsia Festival,
she talks about A Midsummer Night''s Dream and The Tale of Haruk.


“Wonderfully wicked, clever and magical….Jung-Ung Yang’s directing is inspired …exquisite.” – The Scotsman, 2005

These words partly describe my feelings as I first viewed the dress rehearsal of Yohangza Theatre Company’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream – what I would add to this review would be exhilarating, fresh, intriguing, mischievous and an enormous amount of fun!

 A Midsummer Night''s Dream
 by Yohangza Theatre
 Company















My first experience of working with a Korean performing arts company was in 2007 when we presented Yohangza Theatre Company as part of our CentreStage program at the Adelaide Festival Centre. The company was part of a national tour that also performed at the Sydney and Perth Festivals. What an absolute delight this production was and a wonderful insight into the fusion of contemporary and traditional Korean theatre, music and movement. Inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Director Jung-Ung Yang’s original script encapsulated the true essence of the play within an Asian sensibility. Working with Yohangza Theatre Company and AsiaNow Productions was a truly wonderful experience and great friendships were formed. I actually experienced Korean food for the first time - the company were all wonderful cooks and we managed to also fit in an adventurous day off at one of Adelaide’s beaches – I was terrified that some of them would drift out to sea and be off travelling around the coast of Australia!

This production also generated a wonderful array of positive feedback from audiences and the school groups who attended were enthralled by this fresh and magical version. For many audience members this was the first time they had experienced a Korean performing arts company and seen Shakespeare presented in this way. I remember thinking that if only I had seen this production whilst studying Shakespeare at school – it would have been a wonderful introduction to his work.


The Tale of Haruk
 by TUIDA













My next adventure with presenting work from Korea was with Tuida and their beautiful production of The Tale of Haruk. Again I was able to work with Kyu Choi and Ji Sun Park from AsiaNow Productions in presenting this production as part of the 2008 OzAsia Festival. The Tale of Haruk has won many awards and rightly so. Bae Yo Sup has written and directed a stunning theatrical work that is emotionally engaging not only for young people but adults alike. Again the production had a true essence of Korean sensibility with the fusion of contemporary and traditional music and movement. This production even though performed in Korean with English surtitles still managed to portray the meaning of the work in a powerful and moving way for Australian audiences. This is what I found incredibly exciting with both A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tale of Haruk in that both productions were accessible and meaningful for Australian audiences.

Having had the opportunity to visit Seoul for the first time last year to attend PAMS and view the work of various Korean arts companies I am continually impressed by the quality and freshness of some of the work I have seen, this is not only within theatre but across dance, music, film and visual arts. It seems that many of the creatives and performers want to move the boundaries and create fresh contemporary work but still capture an essence of Korean traditional artforms – which for me is very exciting.

With the continuation of my working relationship and friendship with AsiaNow Productions, I’m very excited to be presenting Sadari Movement Laboratory’s Woyzeck in the 2009 OzAsia Festival and next year working towards a program focusing on Korean arts as part of the 2010 OzAsia Festival. What an exciting journey it continues to be!


Currently Jacinta Thompson is the Executive Producer of the Adelaide Festival Centre’s OzAsia Festival. Prior to taking this role in Jan 2008 she was the Programming Executive for the AFC’s CentreStage, Pivot(al) and Australian Stories programs and curated the award winning fine music program - Sunday Spectrum. Between 2003 and 2006 Jacinta was also the Programming Executive for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. In 2004 Jacinta was the recipient of the Asialink Arts Management Residency Program and spent 5 months at the Esplanade Theatres on the Bay in Singapore working on the Indian (Kalaa Utsuvam) and Malay (Pesta Raya) Festivals and travelling to Malaysia, Shanghai and Hong Kong to view work and meet with arts companies and artists.