More than a decade later, Soomin joins other whistleblowers in theater therapy, confronting trauma and reconciling with their past selves who spoke out against the violent culture of their art-university.
In 2014, Soomin was vilified and ostracised for speaking out against hierarchical violence in her university’s theatre department. After graduating, she moved to Berlin to study theatre, but spent four and a half years battling severe depression. On the eve of returning to Korea for treatment, she confided in a friend, “Why am I still struggling? Everyone else moved on. If I knew it would be like this, I wouldn’t have blown the whistle.”
Back in Korea, Soomin began psychiatric treatment and enrolled in a documentary department. While reading her old diary, she came across apology messages sent a year after graduation. This made her wonder how her university peers what happened. Were they proud of it? Did they think it was right? What began as a project of revenge shifted when she realised she wasn’t seeking apologies—she wanted to reconcile with her past self who regretted speaking out.
She found others like her: people who loved theatre but had left due to wounds they couldn’t heal. With Haneul and Bumjin, she begins group theatre therapy to confront trauma and say the things they couldn’t say back then.
Can the three of them finally make peace with their past?
