This highly original one-act play depicts the dilemmas faced by two characters who find themselves trapped in a lonely situation of their own making. Yoo Nanhee (Chuja Seo) is a North Korean woman who has made the perilous journey to South Korea in order to escape oppression and poverty.  She has left her much-loved father behind and now is lost in the brash, high-tech lifestyle of the South. Guk Minsung (London Kim) is a South Korean who has sent his wife and daughter to the USA in order that the girl does not have to endure the rigours of his country’s highly pressurised education system.  Minsung has done what he thought was best, but now he is utterly adrift, as over the years he has lost all real contact with his family.  Desperately lonely, Nanhee and Minsung resort to on-line dating, and eventually meet. They embark upon a tender but fraught relationship, much of which is conducted via the internet.

Two of the cast act as Nanhee’s and Minsung’s on-line avatars, speaking the text messages that they send to each other and to their all-too-distant relatives. This clever device serves to emphasise the depersonalising effect such forms of communication can have. Six actors frequently become a kind of social media chorus, bringing to life the advertising jingles, repetitive messages, beeps and pings familiar to anyone who makes use of the likes of Facebook or YouTube.  This is ensemble work is done in a dynamically choreographed and rowdy fashion, which very effectively creates a bewildering and dehumanizing Tower of Babel, where all real communication is lost amid the noise. We see the expression of real emotion reduced to the twee and infantile use of emojis, such as ‘smiling face with hearts’ or ‘monkey with hands over eyes.’ When first encountered, this bringing-to-life of the highly commercialised and often kitsch features of on-line communication is amusing, but it is greatly over-used, and quickly becomes an unwelcome and rather tedious distraction. 

Wild Goose Dreams has many surreal moments, some more successful than others. I liked the idea that Nanhee’s dreams of her father sometimes take on an unwelcome solidity, and the occasions when he pops into her life at inopportune moments are dramatically effective.  Rick Kieswetter portrays this intrusive dream-father with an endearing dry wit. But Nanhee’s imaginings do not stop at her father.  For reasons that are not entirely clear, she conjures up a penguin that emerges from her toilet.  This scene is undeniably funny, but it distracts far too much from the central narrative. Later, even more penguins appear. Hansol Jung is a talented writer with a fertile imagination, but she has a tendency to over-egg the inventiveness.

In the play’s best moments, Nanhee’s and Minsung’s fragile relationship is depicted with real poignancy.  London Kim and Chuja Seo give these characters a touching vulnerability, particularly when their relationship becomes physically intimate. I would have liked to have heard more about Nanhee’s life in the North, and more about Minsung’s decision to send his family abroad, for many in a UK audience will not be familiar with the realities of life in that part of South-East Asia. Towards the end of the play we see Heejin, the daughter, struggling to come to terms with the loss of a father that she does not really know.  Jessie Baek conveys her anger and grief very powerfully indeed. She brings into sharp relief the enormous sacrifices men like Minsung make when they choose to become ‘wild goose fathers’, so called because, like migrating geese, they must travel great distances if they are ever to visit their far-flung families.

This lively production of Wild Goose Dreams is directed at pace by Michael Boyd, and Jean Chan’s deceptively simple set reveals a number of surprises as the action develops.  Hansol Jung has a way with metaphor – there are some lovely passages of writing – but her creative spirit needs more discipline. This play is too much a rag bag of disparate ideas.  But go see this play, for all eight actors are excellent, the production values are high, and it is refreshing to see a work that sheds light upon a culture about which many of us know very little.   ★★★★☆    Mike Whitton    28^th November 2019