Koo Jaha, a Europe-based theater maker, composer and video artist, is the first Asian and youngest winner of the International Ibsen Award, which is often nicknamed the Nobel Prize of theater. (Screen capture from award's official website)

By Hong Angie

Koo Jaha, 42, a Europe-based theater maker, composer and video artist, has won the International Ibsen Award, which is considered the Nobel Prize of theater.

The awards committee in Norway announced this on March 20. Koo is both the first Asian and youngest recipient of the honor.

In 2007, the Norwegian government launched the biennial prize to commemorate its famous playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906). The recipient is announced on March 20, Ibsen's birthday, and the award is presented in September during the Ibsen Festival.

The committee said, "(Koo) eschews the loud and the bombastic in favour of the intimate, the delicate and the small: almost akin to an elegant chamber orchestra, but often providing sharp socio-political critique and expansive reflections on identity, displacement, and the erosion of democracy."

Majoring in drama at Korea National University of Arts and earning a master's from DAS Theatre in Amsterdam, Koo is based in Ghent, Belgium. In 2017, he won the Dutch YAA (Young Artist Award) Prize for Performing Arts in theater and music for tackling social issues in politics and history through media such as music, video and robotic objects.

His leading works include "Lolling and Rolling" (2015), "Cuckoo" (2017), "The History of Western Korean Theatre" (2020) and "Haribo Kimchi" (2024). He is credited with over 300 performances in 27 countries.

The awards ceremony is slated for Sept. 26 at the National Theatre in the Norwegian capital of Oslo, and "Cuckoo" will be performed the following day at the same venue. Named after the eponymous Korean rice cooker brand, the play depicts Korea's financial problems after the 1997 Asian financial crisis through dialogue between Koo and three talkative robotic rice cookers.

This is a scene from "Haribo Kimchi," a play by Koo Jaha, this year's winner of the International Ibsen Award. (Screen capture from Seoul Performing Arts Festival's official website)