KASSNA · Theatre · 2026
User Manual for a Broken Machine
Writer & Director · Namoo Chae Lee
★★★★★“Thoughtful and thoroughly engaging”NORTH WEST END UK
★★★★“Darkly comic and uniquely creative”THE UPCOMING
What if the instructions are the problem?
A broken Daewoo vacuum cleaner. A manual that promises to fix it. Three people trying to follow the instructions.
A Reader, a Mover and a Player set out to put the machine back together. As instructions are repeated, translated and misread, repair becomes a struggle between bodies, objects and the systems that tell them how to function.
Combining physical comedy, live music, spoken text and video, User Manual for a Broken Machine moves between the domestic and the political: South Korea’s drive for economic progress, the experience of migration, and the pressure to remain useful.
When a machine — or a person — can no longer perform as expected, who gets to decide what needs fixing?
Next performances
Voila! Festival
11 & 12 November 2026 · 7pm
Theatro Technis, London
Production images
Creative team
Writer & Director · Namoo Chae Lee
Choreography & Movement · Suyoung Park
Music & Sound · Seayool
Deviser & Performer · Eden Jun
Video Designer · Wilfred Wong
Creative Technologist · Aniket Joshi
Lighting Design · Slice of Light (Nurul Wardani & Sammy Kissin)
Performance history
Bloomsbury Festival
Holy Cross Church, London · October 2026
Bloomsbury collaborators
Rehearsal Stage Manager · Constance Des Marais
Lighting · Carla Ng
Special thanks to Peijia Hu.
Supported by
Interviews & Press
Theatre Weekly · 1 October 2026
User Manual for a Broken Machine — Interview
Namoo discusses instruction, migration and composing performance through text, movement, music and technology.
North West End UK · 10 October 2026
★★★★★ — Review
“Thoughtful and thoroughly engaging”