This is KPBS Midday Edition. I am Maureen Cavanaugh.Americans hear about North is -- North Korea and the dreams of a dictator. The drama at the La Jolla Playhouse focus on another set of dreams, "Wild Goose Dreams". It tells a story of a defector of a man living alone while supporting his family overseas. They are lonely for different reasons and they begin and online romance. Joining me is Hansol Jung . Welcome.The director is here, Lee Silverman.Thank you.One of the characters in the play is what is called a goose father. What is that ?Is a term in South Korea for fathers who stay in Korea and send the rest of the family over to English-speaking countries for education.Why would they do that ?It has to do with speaking English or the education that is very intense in Korea. They want to send children overseas for a more lax environment and they can also learn English.More opportunities ?If you can speak English and Korean.It used to be in the 1990s. That is when the phenomenon happened.What made you what to do this with a North Korean defector ?It started with the defector. I read that there were defectors who went back to North Korea that was fascinating to me. Why would they do that? And then trying to figure out what the inner life of an outsider and who would want to go back, I wanted to hear an insider person in so. I look for someone who was at the top of the chain as far as money and job.The he had the same problem as being alone even though they have the good paperwork.The Internet plays a key role in "Wild Goose Dreams". You chose not to use other technology to shows what the characters are doing online.You use choral singing . Why did you make that choice?This is the composer and wrote the music. They have been talking a lot over the development about how the Internet is not about its own. It is about humanity and how did this represent humanity on stage and if you are sort of representing in a theatrical way a screen, the least exciting interpretation would be to show the screen. With them together, they came up with a vision for the play that had lots of natural elements, water and the deck is all wood. We tried to create a human experience for these very lonely people and the noise and the chaos is by the other humans, not anything that is cold and technological. In a way, that is what is makes us feel lonely. We are not a part of it.We have established the two main characters and they are lonely people. Now the pull of home in North Korea is profound as you have been exploring. Considering what conditions are like in North Korea, to some people, that would be impossible to understand. How do you explain that?I can explain it as a person who does not know North Korea beckon only look to the humanity inside. When you go to a strange place, it is hard. When things get rough, you miss the things that are familiar to you. You miss people who know you and have known you all your life and not this version that you have create re-created in the new place.To pull back, I cannot really talk about the pull of North Korea as a place, as a place of identity but I can talk about the push away from the commercial landscape or the the cutthroat aspirations in a cashless society, that is hard and anti-human.Did you experience -- did you pull from your own experience to find that place of loneliness and the pull back to home?[ Indiscernible ]Yes. Yes. Yes, I did that also. South Korea and America are very different places. I mean, there is a lot of similarities but the up rootedness and the need to try to cut yourself up so you can fit into another place is interesting, I think.Lee, you are exposing the audience to terms and situations they are probably unfamiliar with.How does the play overcome this to make a connection with the audience ?You go to the theater to have new experiences.My job is to make it legible and understandable and exciting.This is why I love the play because even though it is about this place and people that I do not know that we know, and yet it is the most universal story about family and home and where you find home and how you find home. All I have to do is hold onto that piece of the story because that is, in fact the story and where it took place and how it took place is an exciting part of it.I opened up by saying what most Americans hear about North Korea and that area of the world these days, there is a military threat. As you were writing this, was there anything you wanted the audience to think about our current relationship with North Korea?The only thing I can say as a writer, I am not a politician of any kind. There is more that is a like between us then there is the difference. It thrills me to write characters that labels such and Sage. They are North Koreans that means they are aliens. They are Martians. It is a difficult journey to try to find myself in that character. You have to write a story where she is a human and has the same problems that I have."Wild Goose Dreams" runs at the La Jolla Playhouse.I have been speaking with Hansol Jung and Lee Silverman. Thank you very much.Thank you.
The two lead characters of La Jolla Playhouse's "Wild Goose Dreams" are searching for personal connections when they first appear onstage.
One is a North Korean defector, who has left her family behind to escape to South Korea and is desperate to speak to them again. The other is a "goose father," a term for a husband who sends his wife and children to an English-speaking country for schooling while he stays behind to work and support them.
It is that shared loneliness that draws them together online. South Korean playwright Hansol Jung says she was inspired by reports of goose fathers committing suicide and of a North Korean defector re-defecting. Moving to the U.S. for graduate school, Jung says she has experienced that type of loneliness too.
"The loneliness that I felt is a solitary thing to experience, and it’s so moving to see other people share the feelings that I thought were just mine. So many other people are saying, 'Yeah, me too.' It sort of defeats the purpose of that feeling of loneliness. I think subconsciously that’s what I set out to do when I wrote this play; it was to cure that feeling I was having," Jung said.
The play, which is having its world premiere in San Diego, runs through Oct. 1.
Jung and director Leigh Silverman join KPBS Midday Edition with more on "Wild Goose Dreams" and using music to represent the deluge of online distractions.
