The first question would be for me,
what inspired you to write The Free9?
That seems like a very simple question,
but has a very, very long back story.
Okay, so I will go for the long version so I
I have been fascinated by North
Korea and South Korea for years.
I remembered I was taken
to the demilitarised zone,
which is the sort of where where South
and North Korea are split when I was,
divided, probably
when I was a teenager and it
it just made and this is it's a
late 80s and it was, you know,
sort of during the Cold War and it and
it just made such an impression on me.
And also, just because I've grown up
in England and just sort of going to
Korea at that time in my life had a huge
effect on me because it was such
a just it felt like a very very
turbulent country because at the
time I was staying in Seoul and
there were student demonstrations,
there were sort of democracy
uprisings against the sort of.
Military dictatorship there and then
with sort of going to the 38th parallel,
which is where North and South
Korea are divided.
It just was the most tense
place I'd ever been.
So that is the sort of back story.
And then I came to write another
play and that was because a
Korean friend of mine was
translating North Korean defectors
stories for a human rights
organisation and I came to find
out that there were lots of
there were quite a few North Korean
defectors living in sort of South London,
so I, I,
I just became really interested
in their stories and so I wrote
another play called Pyongyang
which was about North Korea and I
suppose The Free9 came out of
that and when I was approached to
write to play for the National Theatre
Connexions that needed a large cast
with lots of teenage characters
I'd followed the story of the Laos
nine when I was writing Pyongyang,
so that just seemed like
something natural to write. Sorry.
That's very, very long answer.
Should I do the short answer?
The short answer is that I read
a newspaper article about the
nine North Korean defectors,
the last nine,
and got really caught up in their story.
No, I enjoyed both the answers actually.
Why did you write this play? And who was it for?
So it was a commission for the
NT Connexions, so it was written
for young people to perform,
and I think Connexions they have
it has to be between.
I might get this wrong,
I think something between 13 and 18.
So it was written for teenagers.
And I guess I so it was written
for teenagers and I think,
I wanted kids who maybe came from a really
different background to be able to relate
to these characters and sort of see
although it although culturally
they're so different,
but I also wanted them to see the
similarities and the lightness and to
be able to put themselves in these
characters shoes and also writing it I just,
I was also aware it was a play to be
performed and I wanted people to have
a really fun time performing it,
so there's so the structure
is, is quite different.
It's quite filmic with
short scenes and the time lines
are quite fun to play around with.
And also there's also quite
a lot of movement in it,
which I really like in theatre,
and I thought,
and I thought people could have
a lot of fun with the movement
aspects and the dance aspects.
And my third question is, why this topic
for young people, you know?
Because I think, I think be a
lot of the theme al lot of the,
a lot of the stuff that the kids struggle
with I think is quite universal, so
you know, there might be there might
be kids in cities in England that
sort of coming to contact with gangs.
You know some of the some of
the kids struggle in the play,
sort of struggle with drug dependency.
Coming to terms with gender and sort of
the beginnings of sexuality and romance,
and I thought that was, they were, they were
themes that were accessible to young people,
and that they might be sort of
thinking about in other ways.
Thank you and I definitely
agree with you on that about
every child in different cities
and country could agree because I
quite got that vibe from from your
story. Great, I'm glad. I think it's
I think it's that thing of what I
try to do with it is obviously I
wanted it to be true to the context
and I wanted it to be true to these
kids and what they'd experienced.
But I also wanted to,
I wanted it for it to be universal
and for for kids
sort of round the world to be
able to relate to them.
And what they were going through?
So this is a random question,
but did you find that hard to
do to like kind of keep it true
to the story but, but related to
other children without a hard
process to do or that easy?
I think, but I think that's what's
just great about theatre,
so I think it's that thing of.
Just imagination and empathy.
So I think you know.
So I think you know when you're acting
or when you're putting on a play,
or when you're reading a play
it's that act of imagination and then empathy.
So when you write it,
that's kind of what you
what I try and do as well.
I mean just to make the characters
accessible I think.
How should The Forgotten be staged?
How should it be staged i?
I think. That is.
I think there were loads and loads
of different ways that The Forgotten
can be, can be staged,
and I think there's I mean you could,
you could almost do them,
you could almost do it like a ghost story.
I kind. I kind of think that I will.
I sort of think that there the,
I think they're the sort of people it there.
People who are sort of my.
when I was writing it,
my idea was that they were the sort
of people who were sort of in the
political prisons in North Korea
that was sort of forgotten
and not talked about,
or maybe there were ghosts.
So yeah, I mean you could.
I think they could be done is that there
are lots of different ways to do it.
I think you could do it as a ghost story.
You sort of them, sort of
coming, you know, coming out of the shadows,
but very sort of. I think of them as very,
very movement based.
Like really use the light, use the lighting,
use the set, just you know, sort of
have them popping out or
just sort of always present somehow.
But I say I think us,
but I think you can have a lot
of fun playing around with that.
I definitely agree in my head.
I imagine them as um,
like character that always there.
But like when he spoke, the light
will come on to them. Yeah, yeah,
but just sort of always watching.
Also they remind me of like I don't
know all knowing creature
like they see all and so
there's been a bit of a bit like,
the subconscious, you know,
that's really nice. Yeah, yeah,
that's really nice. I like that.
Because of how they bring up
you now the forgotten, forgotten
memories and things like that.
And yes, the kind of
subconscious memeories, like you know some
people speak some stuff in the head.
That's the way I saw it as well. Yeah, and
there's also sort of element
of of the characters sort of
try not to see them or they're
trying to repress them because
it's too painful to acknowledge.
So that I think that's quite
nice that they're sort of always
being pushed into the shadows,
but they're always creeping forwards.
And before we move to the themes
of the play, do you have any
questions you'd like to ask me? Yeah.
So what was your what was your reaction
the first time you after your first,
the first time you read The Free9?
My first reaction slash instinct I think,
was to learn more about Korea
straight away with that was like
something that yeah in the yeah yeah.
My first reaction. Also I think
it got me thinking a lot about
refugees I supposed because, I
don't know, I just don't think in my head.
There would be people in Korea
struggling like and struggling in
terms of poverty in times of war
and don't know why, but I just yeah.
Yeah, I guess that's because I guess
South South Korea now is
quite a rich country,
but then North Korea is one
of the poorest countries.
Is is really really poor,
so there's that difference and
so that's interesting.