Did you know that your dead pets are refusing to cross the rainbow bridge?
They still miss you. They want to say a proper goodbye.

Myeong, Pet Shaman, is here to help.

(But remember! No human souls allowed!!)

TELL ME YOUR NAME is an immersive solo performance written and performed by Yeonshin Kim, exploring the legacy of war-inflicted trauma and Korean colonial oppression through humor and communal healing. In the piece, Kim plays Myeong, an otherworldly contemporary Korean shaman who summons and embodies the souls of deceased pets. (Only pets! No humans!) Playfully encouraging audiences through interaction and improvisation to invoke memories of their dead fur babies – how they moved and ate, sounded and played, lived and died – Myeong slowly coaxes audiences to tune into their memories: sweet, awkward and funny. Each spiritual solicitation culminates in a ritual release, speaking the beloved soul’s name and saying goodbye, only for Myeong to wake with no memory of what has transpired. 

But just as Myeong’s begins to wrap up her healing rites for grief, care, and vulnerability a new soul insists on breaking in. Grandmother has a story to tell and no one, not even the most powerful PET Shaman, can deny the power of the ancestors. Soon audiences meet Grandmother—an energetic, talkative, affectionate old lady with a thick Korean accent who’s THRILLED to spend time in a young body surrounded by youths. She jokes, rambles, lectures, digresses and slowly, arrives at reason she’s come; to tell her story as a “comfort woman,” a Korean girl sexually enslaved during the Japanese colonial era, and finally, finally, have her story witnessed and her name spoken so she can be released. Humorous, provocative and playful, TALK TO ME explores the absurd ways we hide from generational trauma and how some stories lie in waiting until we’re brave enough to stop them from being forgotten. Inspired by her own lived experience as a Korean woman, this intimate and tender play uncovers the legacy of survival and the resilience of spirit that we carry through storytelling and memory.