TETHER 인연 is a magnificent thing. Part play, part gig, part ceilidh, Summerhall‘s main stage is set with a live band, a floor to ceiling projector screen and a demarcated dance floor. The band are playing an infectious ceilidh tune as we enter the space, audience members are invited to dance, and so the story unfolds.

In the aftermath of the First World War, Dae Han has travelled from Joseon, now Korea to Glasgow, eager to learn more about the church. He finds himself living above a pub full of wine, whisky and dancing and thereafter, meets Jane, daughter of the landlady. Thirty years later, Jane’s daughter meets a soldier on the battlefield in South Korea and makes an unexpected request. Then we’re in Glasgow in the ’70a and Jane’s running the same pub, looking back on the choices she made in her life well lived, when an expected visitor arrives.

This chronology ill-serves the lyrical script co-created by Wonder Fools‘ Robbie Gordon, Jack Nurse and Theatre San‘s Yoon Junghwan. The story leaps to and fro in time, gently as a gazelle, orchestrated as carefully as an Orcadian Strip The Willow. The action is conveyed through a mix of dialogue, alternately delivered in Korean and English with translations projected onto the backdrop and movement (Gordon, Nam Hyunwoo). The overall affect is dreamlike, discombobulating and eerily appropriate for the story of two lives that are physically torn apart, yet always invisibly tethered together.

There are a surprising number of connections between Scotland and South Korea, providing a wealth of material for this partnership between two theatre companies. A Scottish missionary helped produce the first Korean New Testament in 1887. The song that became Korea’s national anthem was sung to the tune of ‘Auld Lang Syne’. And the folk music from both countries is characterised by a Korean word, han. Difficult to translate, the actors describe a profound sense of longing, regret and resentment that translates into a haunting melancholy in music. This is served up in spades throughout the play’s wistful soundscape (Stuart Ramage) but we’re saved from wallowing as the band segues into a buoyant ceilidh tune and the audience are invited up to dance.

TETHER 인연 is a captivating play. It doesn’t shy away from the darkness – discrimination, duty, and the horrors of being an occupied nation. It’s a play about history and yet it’s perfectly timely with its discrete nods to countries seeking independence and people from different places who don’t always get along. But first and foremost, it’s a celebration of the things that bring us together. The run ends on 22 August so get your ticket quick.

TETHER 인연 is at Main Hall at Summerhall until Sat 22 Aug 2026