Another fantastic article about You For Me For You in Washington DC from theatrewashington.org:
Korean-American playwright Mia Chung writes about the unknown. Her stories and characters do not begin from a place of expertise, nor are they created in an attempt to educate her audience. Instead, Chung writes because of a craving for knowledge. “I think often people assume that a black writer or a Mexican writer might write about their cultures because they know them and are experts,” Chung asserts. “For me, writing comes out of a place of ignorance and curiosity.” And You For Me For You, which will receive its World Premiere at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company beginning November 5, is no different. It is a play born out of years of research that began because of hunger for more information, a play that is both exciting and formidable, a play that tackles an ambitious subject very few people in the world know much about: North Korea.
You for Me for You tells the story of two sisters who attempt to flee from North Korea to the United States. But when one of the sisters is reluctant to defy her government and cross the border, the other must journey across space and time in an attempt to save her. Chung, who was born and raised in the States, has always been fascinated by North Korea and its political situation. Her perspective was largely shaped by her parents, who grew up in South Korea and have a deep-seeded distrust of the North, but at a certain point Chung wondered how a country that treats its citizens so terribly could continue to exist. “The real question for me was, why hasn’t [the country] fallen apart yet?” she says. “Is the clock ticking? Is it just about to fall apart?” She began researching North Korea, watching documentaries, reading books, and even visited the Korean Demilitarization Zone where she peered over the border into the northern world where precious few are allowed. Research in-hand she was all set to write a play exploring why the country hasn’t fallen apart until two seemingly unrelated events captivated her attention and shifted her perspective.
First, on March 17, 2009, border guards detained American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee after they crossed into North Korea from China without a visa. Both were found guilty of illegal entry and sentenced to twelve years hard labor, and although the journalists were eventually released after President Clinton visited leader Kim Jong-il, the fate of these American women seemed devastating and unavoidable for four long months. Chung followed the situation closely, mesmerized by the actions of the North Korean government. “To me it felt like a piece of theatre,” she says. “But the stakes [were] real.” Chung took this realness and intensity and imbedded it in her play, the result of which is a powerful urgency that is fairly uncommon on stage. “There are many plays which are very interesting and very dramatic, but the topics don’t seem that important,” notes You For Me For You director Yury Urnov. “We’re talking about two sisters in the situation of pure survival; the stakes are immediately as high as they can be. Everything is life and death.”
At exactly the same time as the fate of two journalists was being decided, Jaycee Dugard was discovered half way around the world after being gone for almost two decades. Dugard, who had been kidnapped when she was 11, held hostage for more than 18 years by Phillip and Nancy Garrido, and gave birth to two daughters while in captivity, fascinated Chung. She was particularly struck by Dugard’s psychological state; Dugard lied about her identity to the police, defended her captors, and stayed with the family despite numerous opportunities to escape, exhibiting signature signs of Stockholm Syndrome. “Jaycee could have run away,” Chung declares. “She could have hopped the fence somehow. I’m not saying she was dumb or stupid — I think there was some sort of mental form of control and a desire to survive. That gave me a way in to North Korea. It’s like the government has kidnapped its citizenry.”
This new perspective on the psychological state of the North Korean government shifted something for Chung. “The question of, how soon is [the country] going to fall apart was replaced by, will it ever? Even if the borders came down, will it every truly fall apart?” she explains. And so she wrote about the complications of fleeing, about the struggles of being an immigrant, about a situation that is far from black-and-white. “Our perception, I think, is that as soon as a North Korean sees that the entire world is not starving as they’ve been told, they’ll just renounce their government and be excited to be welcomed by the West,” says Chung. “And I think maybe some of them will. But I think there are plenty of people who would not. I wanted to show the contrast and [reveal a different] North Korean perspective.”
The piece that emerged from years of painstaking research, numerous developmental workshops, and a refusal to accept a simplistic view of North Korea is stunning, devastating, and delightful and deeply satisfying in its examination of one journey of survival. And although You For Me For You is a perspective on North Korea, it is ultimately an exploration of the immigration experience more broadly defined. “[The play] is about so much more than North Korea,” says Woolly Literary Manager and Dramaturg John Baker. “It’s about the idea of defecting. The idea of what does it mean to plop down and start over. It’s about so many ideas, but also has so much heart.” This openheartedness is ultimately what makes her piece so powerful. You For Me For You began as a search for understanding, and rather than becoming entrenched in a limited perspective, the play crosses borders in an unexpected ways. Chung disregards stereotypes, embraces otherness, and provides outsiders a glimpse into the unknown world of North Korea.
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