Korean pansori 'The Longest Night' heads to Sydney Opera House in bilingual showcase

"The Longest Night" (Jeongdong Theater)

"The Longest Night" is preparing to meet Australian audiences through a pansori performance integrating Korean and English.

The stage adaptation of the bestselling Korean children’s book of the same title will be presented next month at the Sydney Opera House in a series of "process-sharing" performances, on Feb. 13-14.

Audiences will see excerpts of the work while it is still being devised, offering a rare glimpse into collaborative theater-making as it happens.

Based on Luly’s award-winning novel, published by Munhakdongne Publishing Group, the story follows the journey of a white rhinoceros and a young penguin as they embark on a journey through the night in search of their own lives. The book has sold more than 700,000 copies in Korea, won the Grand Prize at the Munhakdongne Children’s Literature Award, and has also been adapted into a musical.

This stage version by Ipkoason Studio, a collective of pansori singers and drummers, draws on pansori, a traditional Korean genre that combines musical storytelling, performed by a singer (sorikkun) and accompanied by a drummer (gosu).

The team said that the central question explored by the Korean and Australian producers was whether it is possible to create a bilingual performance that can be understood even by young audiences who cannot yet read.

Rather than relying on subtitles, the production weaves English directly into the pansori framework. In this process, English is not used to explain or replace pansori, but is positioned as another linguistic element that operates alongside “sound” on stage, according to the company.

The project began in 2024 following a showcase at the Seoul Art Market. After nearly a year of discussion, Ipkoason Studio and the Sydney Opera House agreed to develop the work as a fully international co-production, rethinking both language and form together.

For Ipkoason Studio, the showcase is both an experiment and a test.

“We want to closely observe how local audiences respond and to build, step by step, a model that preserves the most Korean qualities of pansori while allowing it to circulate sustainably on the international stage,” said the company.