The Magic Time Travel

“What if time stood still…?”

A lively children’s world, told the Korean way

One day, after their mother goes out, mischievous Deolleong-i and crybaby Eomji invite their friends over to play. As six o’clock — when Mom is due home — draws near, the wish “What if time stood still?” sets their imaginations flying.

This was Arirang’s second original children’s play. After The Magic Zoo swept three awards at the 1st Seoul Children’s Theatre Awards in 1992 and drew some 30,000 spectators in Seoul and on tour, the whole company trained in a specialist children’s theatre course at the 1993 “Arirang Winter Culture School.”

Addressing the lack of original Korean children’s plays — and the tendency of those that existed to drift into fantasy far removed from children’s real lives — the production used Korean traditional music, hanbok and dance in its design, costumes and score, introduced shadow play and marionettes, and pointed out the dehumanising violence of cartoons and games. Rather than endless fantasy, it kept the fairy-tale world meeting the children’s real one, making the play vivid and true to life.

It won Best Director at the 2nd Seoul Children’s Theatre Awards in 1993. Building on that success, Arirang gave special charity performances for children in care and toured the regions several times.