King's Theatre, Edinburgh Four stars
Madame Freedom is a performance by Korean dance company which explores the transition of the Korean woman from bland obscurity to a vibrant pillar in Korea's society.
The first thing we see is the woman transforming - making us wonder how this seemingly rapid transformation occurred and at what cost. This sense of intrigue is continued as we see a women trapped by grey walls symbolising a loveless marriage. She dances erratically to deep twanging sounds as if to rid herself of shackles of some sort.
We then hear more up-beat music accompanied by an image of a window showing that music is the way out of this restriction of a traditional Korean marriage. The performance cleverly displays the conflicts felt by these Korean women through use of contrasting colour.
These new options cause an inner conflict for the woman as she tries to decide whether to conform to society's expectations and stay in the marriage shown as a black floor or to explore these new opportunities symbolised by a small white square. This is displayed by the striking image of her lying with her head in the black area and body in the white area showing how torn she is.
Eventually the white takes over and leaves no black left. This leads to all the women making their way to the surface from the depths of the dark confining ocean, portrayed as bubbles rising then reaching the surface. A captivating production.
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