‘Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?)’ Off-Broadway review — Zoë Kim's physicality shines in autobiographical solo show
Read our review of Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?) off Broadway, writer and performer Zoë Kim’s solo show presented by Ma-Yi Theater Company at The Public Theater.
Summary
- Zoë Kim’s solo show Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?) tells the autobiographical story of her family life and self-image
- Kim's physicality stands out as she embodies the overwhelming nature of both love and depression
- Audiences have called the show moving and thought-provoking
- The show is recommended for fans of solo performances
- dance theatre
- and explorations of Asian experiences
In most solo shows, performers address the audience, attempting to singularly hold their attention for however many hours. In Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?), Zoë Kim’s solo show at The Public Theater, she addresses an orb. The small, glowing object may have been an invention of director Chris Yejin or scenic designer Tanya Orellana — in the script, Kim’s stage directions about the orb are addressed to “you.” While the orb is sometimes neglected in favor of Kim’s own memories, the prop starts off as a second character, trying to pull Kim out from typical solo-show traps.
Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?), produced by Ma-Yi Theater Company as part of its residency at the Public, details Kim’s adolescence, from her prayer that the gods turn her into a boy to fit her Korean parents’ patriarchal desires to her coming of age in America. The show is a barrage of confessions, most of them disturbing: Kim’s Appa (father) locked her in her room one summer and fed her diet pills, quizzing her on SAT words and beating her with a golf club when she got them wrong. When she finally told a school counselor about the abuse, Kim’s Umma (mother) insisted she was lying and berated her for bul-hyo: dishonoring one’s parents. In true American fashion, the audience gasped and tutted most at the reveal that Umma later took out loans and credit cards in Kim’s name.
There is no slow reveal of hidden information, no trickle of showing, not telling, that may come from watching multiple characters interact with one another. Throughout the piece, Kim embodies different members of her family — Umma, Appa, her two grandmothers, herself as a child — and her physicality is impressive; choreographer Iris McCloughan also gives Kim body language to express the sensation of being overwhelmed, whether by love or by depression.
These character interludes help pace the show, but we still only have Kim’s words to go on. Reenacted interactions with Umma are satisfying until Kim confesses that they are imagined, and late-in-life revelations about Appa are stymied by the speed with which Kim digests them. Early in the show, projections by designer Yee Eun Nam further bring the other characters into the world of the show, but Nam soon abandons these beautifully layered photographs, leaving Kim alone onstage.
Perhaps this aloneness is the point — Kim tells the orb that from a young age, it will become “really, really good at being alone.” But when a show relies so fully on one person’s perspective, the starkness of their image should be supported, not left to grasp for attention.
Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?) summary
Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?) follows Zoë Kim, a solo performer, as she addresses a small glowing orb about what it can expect in its life. Kim details her Korean family’s history and how her parents, Umma (mom) and Appa (dad), desperately wanted her to be a boy. Disappointed by having a daughter, Appa grows physically abusive and eventually divorces Umma, leaving young Zoë (she is never referred to by name in the piece) grappling for approval and love.
At 15, Kim arrives in the United States for boarding school and begins teaching herself English, but she struggles with an identity crisis that soon gets “minimized and shoved aside.” On Kim’s 16th birthday, Appa arrives at the boarding school to kidnap her, setting off a brutal chain of events that shapes Kim’s self-image for years.
What to expect at Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?)
Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?) runs approximately 65 minutes and is performed without an intermission. The show plays in the Shiva Theater, a small space in the Public’s complex; the one-person show full of dark revelations is well-suited for the intimate theatre. The Shiva’s setting makes the audience feel like we are all cocooned in a room with young Zoë, waiting to see who outside will accept us for who we are.
Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?) features discussions of self-harm and suicide, child abuse, alcohol use, and unhealthy attitudes towards food, including the use of diet pills, starvation, and fatphobic language.
What audiences are saying about Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?)
Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?) has an audience approval rating of 90% on the review aggregator Show-Score, compilred from four largely positive responses from theatregoers.
- Show-Score user Susan 604366 calls Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?) “moving” and says she was “captivated by [Kim’s] performance.”
- Show-Score user Angela C says Kim’s show was “powerful” and “really made me think.”
- Show-Score user Bill 6228 wonders if another actor playing the protagonist of Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?) one day could enhance the nuances in Kim’s story.
Read more audience reviews of Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?) on Show-Score.
Who should see Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?)
- If you enjoyed last season’s Sumo, you’ll want to check out the next Ma-Yi Theater Company production in residence at the Public.
- Fans of one-person shows, like Dylan Mulvaney’s just-wrapped The Least Problematic Woman in the World, will feel at home watching Kim perform.
- Dance-theatre aficionados will appreciate how choreographer Iris McCloughan helps Kim express herself through movement.
Learn more about Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?) off Broadway
Zoë Kim’s physical theatre skills are on full display in Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?), with Iris McCloughan’s choreography and Harriet Jung’s costumes showing off the figurative and literal strength of Kim’s core.
Photo credit: Zoë Kim in Did You Eat? (밥먹었니?) off Broadway. (Photos by Emma Zordan)
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