A blockbuster production at the National Theater of Strasbourg, France... First presented at Seongnam Arts Center on the 2nd and 3rd.
Directed by Nguyen, “It deals with unfair labor, capital logic, and the world of artisan art at the same time.”
(Seongnam = Yonhap News) Reporter Kwon Ji-hyun = "You want the highest quality products from our Indian craftsmen, but you also want low unit prices, quick delivery dates, and security, and now you are even asking us to comply with ethics regulations. Weren't those regulations created by you sitting in your London office?"
Artisans from Mumbai, India, who received an order for embroidery for a British princess's wedding dress, do their best with pride in creating the best work, but eventually reach their limits due to the royal family's unreasonable demands.
The play 'Lacrima', a hit piece from the National Theater of Strasbourg, France, has come to Korea.
The work, which will be performed for two days starting on the 2nd at the Seongnam Arts Center in Gyeonggi Province, seeks to look into the tears of nameless people hidden behind the glamorous global fashion industry. The title ‘lacrima’ means ‘tears’ in Latin. Since its premiere in 2024, it has received favorable reviews on major stages around the world, including the Avignon Festival in France, and this is its Korean premiere.
Caroline Giella Nguyen, who wrote and directed the work, explained in an interview through Seongnam Arts Center, “I wanted to show what makes people suffer and cry today.”
True to his intention, 'Lacrima' takes a close look at how many people shed tears, blood and sweat until the wedding dress of the British royal family was created.
A screen on one side of the stage projected a studio in Paris, Alençon's lace workshop, and an embroidery workshop in India simultaneously in split screens, reproducing the production process that goes on 24 hours a day around the world.
Those who are in charge of creating historical dresses are all thrilled and try their best to leave a lasting impression, but the work is not easy.
The lace on display in the museum, which has no production techniques left, must be restored, and hundreds of thousands of pearls must be threaded and embroidered one by one. Because the royal family demands 100 years of secrecy and tight security, they cannot increase the number of workers or talk about their work to their families.
The play shows the workers who are swollen with anticipation and pride about the wedding dress, to how they lose precious things in the process of excessive labor.
Marion, the head of a Paris costume studio, collapses under the pressure of unreasonable deadlines and demands from the royal family, and her relationship with her family becomes distant.
Thérèse, a master of Alençon lace, a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage, recalls her parents' generation becoming blind and distorted from working on lace for 16 hours a day. In this process, the dark past of workplaces hiring and exploiting hearing-impaired people for work that requires extreme concentration is revealed.
Abdul, a world-renowned Indian embroidery craftsman, is diagnosed with glaucoma before completing the dress and is predicted to go completely blind within a month or two, so he withdraws from his work in accordance with the 'global code of ethics.'
Making the dress of the century is certainly an honorable and artistic value, but the audience who follows the tearful process off-stage laughs as they realize that all this happens for the sake of the veil that the princess will wear for about 20 minutes.
However, the work does not stop at simply talking about ‘labor exploitation’. 'Lacrima' simultaneously illuminates the scenes of artisans losing their health and loved ones, as well as the pinnacle of art created at their fingertips.
Director Nguyen said of this, "I didn't want to say, 'Look at these poor people who work to make things for the rich,'" and explained, "The key is to talk about the pride and status of top craftsmen, but also to deal with the unfair labor system and logic of capital in the process of carrying out that work."
This is clearly revealed in the line that Abdul's daughter speaks to Abdul. The daughter left a message to her father, who did not answer the phone due to tight deadlines and confidentiality regulations, saying, "I don't need the money. The work is good, but please think about who you work for."
Still, the daughter is proud, saying, “I want people to know that my father created the world’s most gorgeous dresses.” This part shows the irony of the art of artisans and the pain they endure through the labor that goes into creating that art.
Director Nguyen said, “I wanted to understand the system in which individuals live, while also respecting and preserving their complexity,” and added, “Please view the workers as characters with knowledge, pride, family, and desires, not as simple victims of capitalism.”
