Namsadang Nori

Namsadang were itinerant all-male troupes who travelled the villages of late Joseon Korea performing for food and lodging, drawn from the poor and the outcast, and their show had six fixed acts: pungmul, the percussion and dance that opens it; beona, spinning bowls and discs on sticks; salpan, ground acrobatics; eoreum, tightrope walking with the walker joking as he goes; deotboegi, masked play; and deolmi, puppet theatre. The masked and puppet acts carried the sharpest content - satire of corrupt officials and of the treatment of women, which travelling outsiders could get away with saying. Anseong is the home base, and the tradition survives through a preservation association there and a permanent troupe. UNESCO inscribed it in 2009. Performances are outdoors, loud, and involve the audience.

What you'll find

• The six acts - percussion, bowl-spinning, acrobatics, rope, masks, puppets.
• The satire - officials and social hypocrisy mocked in the mask and puppet plays.
• The tightrope - the walker performing and talking at once.
• The Anseong troupe - the preservation group that carries it.

When to go

Spring to autumn at Anseong, where the resident troupe performs on a schedule, and at festivals elsewhere. Outdoor and weather-dependent.

Practical notes

Much of it is verbal comedy in Korean, and the satire in particular does not survive translation. It runs long, standing, outdoors. Not a place - a performance you have to time.

Nearby

Anseong is about an hour from Seoul; Suwon and the Korean Folk Village are nearby.