City News

Looking For Yoghurt, a funny and touching new play inspired by the imagination and wisdom of children will open at Birmingham Repertory Theatre this Spring. The production is an international collaboration with Korea’s Joyful Theatre, Japan’s Kijimuna Fest and local Birmingham company Hanyong Theatre. Following its world premiere in Birmingham, the show will tour to Leicester’s SPARK Children’s Festival, Seoul, Korea and Okinawa, Japan.

A theatrical treat for children aged 6+, Looking For Yoghurt follows the adventures of a young girl Norang. She lives in a big city and has lost her friend, a stray cat called Yoghurt, who disappeared into a dangerous building site just as the sun is setting. Should Norang give up on her friend or take her chances and follow the cat into a forbidden world full of monsters and machines? She takes a deep breath and squeezes under the fence…

Inside, Norang meets two other children and together they explore a strange, shadowy, enchanted world. It is the beginning of a fantastic adventure in which they overcome fears, dig for Brazil and climb above the moon.

As part of The REP’s commitment to new writing and work for children, Looking For Yoghurt is a unique collaboration between writers and actors from the UK, Japan and Korea, bringing their cultures, skills and languages together. Featuring energetic physical performances and original live music this funny and moving play is inspired by the imagination and wisdom of children; their fears for the world and their hopes for a brighter future.

Writer and director Peter Wynne-Willson says of the play: “This has been a really exciting project to work on.  We held workshops with school children in Tokyo, Seoul and Birmingham to really capture their imaginations.  We asked children in all three cities what was important to them, what their biggest worries were and how they would solve the big questions of the world.  It was a really fascinating process, and Looking for Yoghurt was essentially built out of the answers we got from all three countries.

The differences between the ideas that came from Japan and Korea, and those from the UK were mostly superficial.  But the majority of the subjects that concerned the children were universal, either the big global issues, such as pollution or war, or the smaller-scale things which apply to us all: friendship, family and safety.  And I think there is something wonderful about the way the creative team, writers and actors have sparked off each other to create a simple and beautiful production from the children’s ideas.”

Looking For Yoghurt has been developed over two years with research and workshops with school children in Birmingham, Korea and Japan. The cast features three actors from the UK, Japan and Korea – Daniel Naddafy, Yudai Kano, Young Ju Park – plus a musician from Japan Ayako Kaihatsu.

Design is by Yeon Choi, Costumes by So Young Park, lighting by Simon Bond and music by Ohiro Minato. The production is supported by The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation.