Koreaboo

Michelle Lim Davidson might be most recognisable from the small screen – specifically ABC’s The Newsreader – but she’s shifted (at least partly) from performer to playwright with her Griffin Theatre Company-developed writing debut, Koreaboo, playing at Melbourne’s Malthouse until October 10. 

In this comedy of colliding cultures, directed by Jessica Arthur (The Dictionary of Lost Words, GAME. SET. MATCH), Davidson also stars as Hannah, a 30-something-year-old woman who’s travelled to South Korea to meet her estranged birth mother (Heather Jeong). But when she arrives in Seoul, ready for the warm embrace of her long-lost culture, she finds her Umma is a workaholic more interested in running her convenience store than connecting with her Australian-raised daughter. 

Umma considers her estranged daughter a “koreaboo”, a foreigner who’s come to Korea to chase the culture craze. So, Hannah has until the end of a sweltering summer to change her mind and find the motherly figure she’s been yearning for all these years.

Fresh off the back of a Brisbane run and its 2025 Sydney premiere, Koreaboo will make its Victorian debut at Malthouse with preview showings from Thursday, September 24 to Saturday, October 10.

In her 2025 Time Out review of Koreaboo, Time Out’s Sally Lewis wrote, “As we witness these two women get to know one another, we are reminded that parenting doesn’t stop when we turn 18. Just because we grow up, build careers, fall in love, and raise our own families, it doesn’t mean we stop needing a hug from mum.”

Catch Koreaboo at Malthouse from September 24 to October 10. Find out more or get tickets via the Malthouse Theatre Website here.