On Nov. 13, 1970, Jeon Tae-il bid his mother goodbye and went to a labor demonstration in downtown Seoul alone. Several hours later, the 22-year-old worker set himself on fire, shouting: “Observe the Labor Standards Act! We are not machines!”
Jeon did not survive his burns and his death spurned workers, university students and activists into action.
Forty years later, memories of Jeon live on in Mom, Bye (再見！母親), a collaboration between veteran Taiwanese theater director Wang Mo-lin (王墨林) and Shiim, a Seoul-based theater group founded by artist duo Hong Seung-yi and Baek Dae-hyun.
Photo Courtesy of Waterfield Studio
The Taiwan-Korea collaboration is part of Wang’s continuing efforts to introduce local audiences to artists and groups from other Asian countries, many of which are similar to Taiwan historically, culturally, and sociopolitically, the director says.
Inspired by a memoir based on conversations and interviews with Jeon’s mother Lee So-seon, the play revolves around the moments Jeon shared with her on the day he set himself on fire.
Wang says the work is not intended to call for “a protest or revolution” but to show “a worker’s frustrations, conflicts and fear.”
The play takes audiences back to the morning before Jeon left home to end his life. After staying up all night cleaning his room, the young man cooked breakfast for his mother and asked if she wanted to go to the demonstration with him.
“At first, I thought, ‘How could he be so cruel as to let his mother watch him burn to death?’ It hurts me to realize that he was afraid. He needed courage. He needed his mom,” Wang said.
Baek, who co-wrote the script with Wang, said that he wanted to present Jeon in a way that hasn’t been seen before.
“I show Jeon as a ghost who lives in the mother’s imagination and memory. I try to grasp what he might think and feel on that day over and over again ... My biggest wish is to bring some comfort to Lee through the work,” Baek said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Lee, now in her 80s, has dedicated her life to the workers’ movement since Jeon passed away.
Having premiered in Busan last September, Mom, Bye is currently playing at the Guling Street Avant-Garde Theatre (牯嶺街小劇場). The Taipei version includes four female workers and activists from the National Federation of Independent Trade Unions (全國自主勞工聯盟), who read entries from Jeon’s published diary onstage.
“Whether or not the inclusion of the female workers makes sense in terms of the content of the work is of no importance to me,” Wang said. “What matters is that the workers participate, speak out, and through the act of speaking, they connect with Jeon Tae-il.”
The performance will be in Korean and Mandarin with Chinese subtitles.
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