2017 Black Tent Theatre Project in Gwanghwamun Square: Staging Tragic Memory and Building Solidarity through Public Theatre

This article investigates the 2017 Plaza Theatre in the Black Tent, a series of performances on a makeshift stage temporarily set up in downtown Seoul, and defines its performative significance, along with Korea's sociopolitical stream of events. Examining the site specificity of Gwanghwamun Square, the location of the Black Tent, this article focuses on the communal bonds people experienced (or could experience) there, many of which related to protests in the wake of the Sewol ferry disaster of 2014 and mass-demonstrations against former President Park Geun-hye from October 2016 to March 2017. In particular, it analyzes the production Red Poem (written and directed by Lee Hae-seong), focusing on the production's attention to the ignored voices of Korean society. I argue that by staging a site of solidarity the Black Tent offers communal consolation that contributes to the square's identity as a public place.