You For Me For You, Royal Court Theatre

Mia Chung is a rising star of playwriting in the US, receiving prizes and accolades from all quarters; it is therefore unsurprising to see her in the line up of for the new Royal Court season, autumn to winter 2015-16. What might surprise us more is the opening setting of You for me for you. North Korea, one of the most tightly controlled and notorious regimes in the world, is the backdrop of this new play.
Not content with the enormous challenge of portraying this world, the second half of Chung’s play follows her protagonist to the United States, drawing stark contrasts with the consumerism of life in America. Her major tactic is a dark and surreal imagination, which allows each step of Junhee’s journey to explode into metaphor, jumping in time and place in a kaleidoscopic experience for character and audience alike.
Playwright Mia Chung began her career writing screenplays and sketches in L.A, before moving the New York, then Washington, to pursue playwriting. Her parents were born and raised in South Korea, which she says has made her fascinated by and yet detached from the goings-on in North Korea, so we look forward to seeing how her experience shapes You For Me For You.
Such ambition presents huge potential for Royal Court stalwart director, Richard Twyman, to stage this piece with spectacular creativity. This play is a brave choice for the Royal Court, following a trend away from realism and into more expressionistic explorations of current political issues. And with stories from North Korea reaching our newsdesks regularly and attracting greater and greater interest, we are sure this will be the play everyone is talking about this Winter.