There is something immediately appealing about KOREABOO, Michelle Lim Davidson’s deeply personal and frequently funny exploration of family, identity and the complicated business of belonging.
Making its way from Griffin Theatre Company’s 2025 season to La Boite Theatre as part of the 2026 Brisbane Festival and now to Malthouse Theatre, the play marks Lim Davidson’s writing debut. Drawing inspiration from events in her own life, it brings a strong sense of authenticity to a story about culture, family and the expectations we place on both.
Directed by Jessica Arthur, KOREABOO stars Lim Davidson as Hannah and Heather Jeong as Umma, a mother and daughter separated by continents, culture and years of absence. Hannah arrives in Seoul carrying expectations of discovery, reconnection and the recovery of something she has always felt was missing.
Umma, however, has little interest in playing the role Hannah has imagined for her. She is busy working, tending to garden gnomes and getting on with life. The awkwardness is funny, but beneath it lies the uncomfortable reality of two women meeting for the first time, each carrying very different ideas about what their reunion should mean.
Armed with Google Translate and an enthusiasm for K-Pop, kimchi and hanboks, Hannah is determined to embrace the culture she sees as part of her identity. To Umma, however, she is a “Koreaboo” — a foreigner fascinated by a culture that Umma simply lives. That distinction gives KOREABOO its emotional weight.
Lim Davidson explores the complicated territory between ancestry and belonging, and the realisation that sharing a heritage does not necessarily provide a shared sense of identity. Hannah may have travelled halfway around the world to find her roots, but what she discovers is that belonging is considerably more complicated than coming home.
The relationship between Hannah and Umma is where the play finds much of its strength. There is affection, frustration and misunderstanding, but little of the easy sentimentality that might be expected from a story about a long-separated mother and daughter. Arthur allows the relationship to unfold with a pleasing restraint, giving the characters room to be funny, difficult, vulnerable and occasionally frustrating.
Lim Davidson is particularly engaging as Hannah, bringing warmth and an appealing awkwardness to her attempts to make sense of a relationship she has spent years imagining. Jeong provides an effective counterpoint as Umma, revealing a woman whose reserve gradually suggests a much more complicated history.
The production immediately places us inside the convenience store that becomes the unlikely meeting ground for Hannah and Umma. Mel Page’s design captures the familiar clutter and fluorescent practicality of the setting, creating a convincing slice of Seoul while also giving the production a strong visual identity. Kate Baldwin’s lighting completes the picture, subtly shaping the space. Brendon Boney’s composition and sound design add another layer, helping shift the atmosphere between the everyday bustle of the store and the more intimate moments between mother and daughter.
What makes KOREABOO work is its ability to move between comedy and something considerably more reflective without losing its lightness. The humour comes naturally from cultural misunderstandings and the sheer awkwardness of trying to establish a relationship with someone who is, technically, family but remains almost a stranger.
Rather than offering a neat resolution, Lim Davidson leaves us with something more recognisable: the understanding that family, identity and belonging are rarely as straightforward as we would like them to be.
KOREABOO
Beckett Theatre – Malthouse Theatre, 113 Sturt Street, Southbank
Performance: Tuesday 29 September 2026
Season continues to 10 October 2026
Information and Bookings: www.malthousetheatre.com.au
Images: Michelle Lim Davidson and Heather Jeong – photo by Gianna Rizzo | Heather Jeong and Michelle Lim Davidson – photo by Gianna Rizzo
Review: Rohan Shearn