First Love

Selected for the 1998 Festival of Love Theatre · Supported by the Korea Culture and Arts Foundation (1998) · Supported by the Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation (1998)

Young people’s love and friendship, soaring on Korean rhythms

Love is art’s eternal theme, and “first love” evokes the crisp scent of a green apple. “Arirang doing First Love?” Audiences used to the company’s socially charged work may have been surprised — but take a closer look. Deong-tta-tta kung-tta-kung!

To the rhythms of jinobangjin, high-school sweethearts Min-seok and Su-jin nurture their first love. But a misunderstanding over a stolen wallet gets Min-seok forcibly sent to a boarding school. The longer they are apart, the deeper their longing, until Min-seok, furious at the school’s unreasonable ways, escapes. The songs he shouts with new friends to the beat of the janggu drum lift the audience — yet they are really the cry of children whose freedom is seized by the pressures of education.

The IMF economic crisis was not only a problem for adults; it left young people even more oppressed and lost. At a time when the crisis froze the whole country, Arirang chose to focus on teenagers. The play was created through surveys, community games, improvisation and discussions with second- and third-year students at five Seoul high schools, drawing on their experiences of love, friendship, parting, loneliness and longing — in the hope of bringing a little warmth to society.

“There was a little bird, a tiny pretty bird… the little bird flies away, and our dreams bloom too.” Like the lyrics of its theme song, First Love became a huge hit with students and teachers alike in 1998 and 1999.