Seoul's Sejong Center stages Big Mother, a French thriller on media power

Lee Jun-woo, the 1985-born head of Seoul’s municipal theater company, is directing his first production since taking the post late last year. The show, a French thriller titled Big Mother, centers on the uneasy relationship between media and power and leverages algorithm-driven manipulation as a theme.

The director described Big Mother as meaningful beyond a straightforward surveillance tale, arguing that it demonstrates how information can be shaped and power exercised in a data-driven era. He spoke about the work at a briefing held at Sejong Center for the Performing Arts’ Arts Building on December 12.

Big Mother is a domestic Korea premiere of a play by French playwright Mélodie Mure. The production has drew attention in France’s theatre scene, culminating in five nominations for the Molière Awards, the country’s top theatre prizes.

In the Seoul production, Yoo Seung-han plays the editor-in-chief of a newsroom called New York Investigations, with Jo Han-cheol in a double-cast role. The actors described the script as particularly fresh, and as a piece that feels acutely relevant to today’s media landscape.

One striking feature of the staging is its rapid pace: the script comprises 58 scenes, requiring fast transitions. Lee explained that a largely emptied set is intended to enable these changes quickly, with the narrative leaving audiences with a lingering, bittersweet impression aligned with the play’s themes.

For its broader aims, Lee outlined a vision for his three-year tenure. He emphasized that Sejong Center sits at the symbolic Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul and he hopes to stage works that reflect a diversity of citizen voices drawn from that iconic urban space. Previously, Lee was the executive director of the Baeda theatre company, whose productions Red Leaves and Wang Se-gae Story earned established theatre awards.

Big Mother runs from the 30th of this month through the 25th of the following month at Sejong Center’s M Theatre. The production marks a notable example of South Korea’s growing engagement with contemporary, issue-driven theatre that engages global audiences through a cross-cultural repertoire. For U.S. readers, the show underscores how algorithmic influence and investigative journalism themes are resonating beyond Korea, touching on concerns about misinformation, platform power, and media accountability that are broadly relevant to global markets, security, and policy.