PERTH FESTIVAL REVIEW: "Haribo Kimchi" serves up a sensory and poignant exploration of migration, identity, and home
From the moment we step into Studio Underground at the State Theatre Centre, Haribo Kimchi is primed to take us on a journey elsewhere. A singular hawker stall stands idly by in its soft glow, humming in anticipation of its guests. Projections of towering skyscrapers and high-rises in nighttime South Korea illuminate before us, eventually transitioning into the bustling streets and laneways in Seoul. As the doors to the stall peel open, we are transported fully into the beating heart of this performance.
Our host, creator and performer Jaha Koo, greets us warmly, inviting two lucky audience members to dine. Plates are carefully set out. He begins to prepare drinks, mixing Cass beer and soju with practised ease, before turning to his first meal. As he cooks, digital screens on stage flare up, and we are introduced to his story.
What follows is a 70-minute glimpse inside South Korean life, but also something more personal: a snapshot of a migrant’s story unfolding far away from home. The staging of the restaurant is not simply a gimmick, but the emotional backbone of the piece. It becomes the space through which Haribo Kimchi explores the relationship between food and culture, and how the act of cooking is often what people bring with them as they try to find their way in a foreign land. Food becomes a way to understand ourselves. Food becomes a way to remember home.
The show is peppered with projections, television screens, and hyperpop tracks, making brilliant use of digital music and multimedia storytelling. Screens flicker with home video-style footage, intimate fragments of Koo’s life in Seoul, Berlin, and Brussels.
Haribo Kimchi tells its story not just through words, but by igniting all the senses. Through your ears, with addictive hyper-pop tracks about snails, eels, and Haribo gummy bears. Through your eyes, with colourful projections and cinematic snapshots. Through smell, as the kimchi pancake sizzles on the pan, the aroma of garlic, chilli, and fermented warmth filling the space. And, for those invited on stage, through taste itself.
There is something deeply thoughtful in the way Jaha Koo moves through the performance. His cooking is so perfectly timed and in sync with the emotional rhythm of the piece that it feels almost like choreography. The act of service becomes central to his performance: Each gesture, each offering of food, becomes an offering of story.
Sweet and harrowing moments interject throughout, as he shares anecdotes from his life, the history of Kimchi and Korean fried chicken. Anchored by Koo’s playful but gentle presence, the message of piece never feels heavy-handed, instead, it sizzles, with warmth, humour, and quiet poignancy.
Haribo Kimchi is a prismatic, one-of-a-kind experience that tells a deeply personal story many immigrants will recognise, while offering others an intimate window into what it means to carry home within you. It is both deeply contemplative and highly entertaining.
You will walk away smiling.
And hungry.
4 out of 5 stars
“Haribo Kimchi” is showing as part of the 2026 Perth Festival season from 18–22 Feb. Click here for details.
Header photo by Bea Borgers
