On 16 April 2014, the Sewol Ferry capsized off the southwestern coast of South Korea, killing 304 passengers, including 250 high school students. After the disaster, images of mothers of the young victims dominated the news footage and social media-mothers sitting at Paengmok Harbor, waiting for their children's bodies to be recovered, sobbing mothers being interviewed, mothers demanding a thorough investigation, and marching to the Blue House, their heads shaved in protest. Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye announced that she and the government had done everything they could to rescue the passengers and promised a thorough investigation. However, Park's government hindered the investigation and kept the victims' families under surveillance. Despite international outrage, there has not yet been a comprehensive investigation of what caused the Sewol to sink and why the passengers were not rescued promptly.
Despite their loss and sorrow, Sewol mothers have become ardent activists, demanding the South Korean government to keep their promise to conduct a thorough investigation and reveal the truth about the Sewol. In order to have their stories heard, several Sewol mothers took the time to meet with playwrights and provided testimonies for theatrical works. This paper examines two performance pieces adapted from testimonies by the Sewol mothers-Talking About Her (2016) and VEGA (2016). These performances serve as a memory archive and offer alternative spaces of memory and mourning. Such performative strategies constitute interventions in public discourse that contribute to social change.
