Write what you know: Play School presenter mines real-life family drama
'I was going back to see my Korean family. It was my second trip back after meeting them,' says Lim Davidson. 'I thought maybe as a playwright I should attempt to write what I know. So I came back and said, okay, the K-pop is still strangely relevant, but I am going to write about what happens after the [adoption reunion] Hollywood moment.
'After the hugging and the crying, how do you establish a relationship with somebody that you barely know? How do you bridge that emotional, cultural and physical distance? I felt it's not an experience people have had much insight into, and that's why I thought, well, I'll give it a go.'
The resulting play is Koreaboo. The two-hander stars Lim Davidson as Korean-Australian adoptee Hannah, who is visiting her birth mother in Seoul hoping to spend the summer connecting, but the reality doesn't live up to her initial expectations.
Lim Davidson drew inspiration for the work from her own life as an adoptee from South Korea. She grew up in Newcastle having come to Australia at four-and-a-half months old.
'I was the only Asian person at my school until year four, so you grow up not seeing anyone who looks like you and disconnected from your culture,' says Lim Davidson. 'So much of the play is about a Korean adoptee trying to go back and understand Korean culture, like experimenting through K-pop, but the characters discover that identity can't be manufactured.
'Anyone who's come from being born in a different country or had ancestral roots somewhere else, it's like you're constantly in that in-between world. It's been amazing to write my own role, that I fit into, with the messiness and rawness of it all.'
Lim Davidson started searching for her biological family in her late 20s, eventually finding them after a tough years-long bureaucratic process, filled with setbacks.
'I was able to reunite with my family in Korea, which is an immense, special thing in my life. I have their support and my family's support here in Australia, too, to write and share some of my experience,' says Lim Davidson. '[ Koreaboo ] is not a documentary on my life, but it has been imagined from reality.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
West Australian
21 minutes ago
- West Australian
Prawns, Pimms and Pedigree: Tessa Daly returns to hometown of Carnarvon for food, fashion and race day fun
She's the daughter of Carnarvon's most decorated trainer, a rising racing media talent, and now, a proud hometown host for one of the region's most delicious new events. Tessa Daly — the daughter of Carnarvon horse trainer Peter Daly — is set to return to her roots on August 1 for the Massey Bay Prawns and Pimms Race Day, the grand finale of Carnarvon's Gascoyne Food Festival leg. 'I grew up following (dad) around the countryside, going to lots of different racecourses all around WA,' she said. 'I guess it's in your blood when you grow up with it.' Despite dabbling in WAFL operations and dreaming of a career in sports media, Daly said the pull of the racing world was far too strong to ignore. 'I was getting up at 3.30am to work with horses, get that job done by 8am and then rushing to East Fremantle Football Club and back to the stables,' she said. 'It was ridiculously long days and I thought – 'I'm 26 - I either need to try and chase these media dreams while I'm still somewhat young and don't leave it too late'.' Now part of Racing WA's TV broadcast team as mounting yard analyst, Daly's focus is on blending her background with her passion – and that's exactly what Prawns and Pimms is all about. 'It's about bringing people from all walks of life into racing,' she said. 'Sea Harvest have donated prawns for the day, and Pimms goes hand in hand with the races — prawns, Pimms and a bit of a punt and a bit of fun as well.' Held on the day that all Australian horses celebrate a birthday, the afternoon will feature local food, drinks, music, and a laid-back trackside atmosphere – all part of a bigger plan to showcase Carnarvon's produce. 'Racing in Carnarvon falls at the perfect time of the year. The weather's great and the produce is even better,' Daly said. 'Doesn't matter if you're involved in racing or if you like racing or not — it's an opportunity to dress up, have a drink and enjoy fresh seafood.' The event is supported by Sea Harvest, Racing and Wagering WA, and the Gascoyne Food Council, and forms one part of the month-long Gascoyne Food Festival trail. For more information, head to the Gascoyne Food Festival website .
Sky News AU
12 hours ago
- Sky News AU
Australia mourns loss of Blue Heelers star and music legend Bobby Bright after his passing at age 80
Bobby Bright, half of the beloved 1960s beat-pop duo 'Bobby & Laurie' and a notable actor on the hit TV series Blue Heelers, has passed away at the age of 80 after battling lung cancer for three years. It marks the end of a remarkable journey that spanned music, television, and live performance. Bright was born Robert Harry Bright on February 3, 1945, in Watford, England and migrated with his mother to Adelaide around 1954, starting an early career as a solo singer throughout the 1960s. In 1964, destiny brought him together with Laurie Allen in Melbourne, and together they formed one of Australia's most memorable pop duos. Their fame rise began with the smash hit 'I Belong with You', which reached No. 1 on the Melbourne charts and later cracked the national top 10. Their follow-up cover 'Hitch Hiker' also claimed the No. 1 spot, solidifying their place in the Australian music history. While the dynamic duo officially parted in 1967, they reunited briefly and continued to perform occasionally until their final concert back in 2002, shortly before Laurie Allen's death. Meanwhile, Bright's career extended beyond music. He appeared on Australian TV most notably in Homicide and served as a DJ at Melbourne's 3XY radio station. In the early 1990s, he also took a vital role as Eddie Nelson in an episode of Blue Heelers. His film credits include a cameo in Queen of the Damned (2002), showcasing his versatility as an actor. In later years, Bright remained active in Melbourne's live entertainment scene and released an autobiography titled Child of Rock and Roll. Bobby Bright's passing marks the end of an era for Australian entertainment after spending five decades in both music and film.
The Advertiser
15 hours ago
- The Advertiser
The acclaimed Australian novelist who withdrew from literary life
Read Michael Robotham's new crime saga The White Crow and Helen Trinca's Looking for Elizabeth. Helen Trinca. La Trobe University Press. $36.99. The acclaimed Australian novelist Elizabeth Harrower was in full command of her craft when, after the publication of her fourth book, The Watch Tower, and suffering from writer's block, she stopped writing and faded from view. Harrower's withdrawal from literary life after missing out on the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 1967 earned her frequent admonishments from her irascible friend Patrick White, but it wasn't until decades later that she permitted her final novel, In Certain Circles, to be published. Trinca explores Harrower's sense of abandonment and how, even 70 years after the fact, she still described herself as "a divorced child". Kate Marvel. Scribe. $36.99. Climate scientist Kate Marvel offers a refreshingly different perspective on our changing planet by anchoring her thoughts in emotions. Each of the nine chapters uses a different feeling - from wonder to grief and love - to illuminate the complex realities of climate change. Drawing on science, memory, and even moments of humour, Marvel blends intellect with intimacy to reveal the personal stakes of a global crisis. "The future remains uncertain," she writes. "But I'm sending my children there, and they are never coming back. I think about it every day. And then, I feel." An eloquent discussion about a shifting world. Dr Rami Kaminski. Scribe. $32.99. Are you the awkward odd one out at parties, but completely comfortable - even energised - when socialising over dinner with a friend? You're definitely not an extrovert, but how can you be an introvert? You don't crave solitude, so what's going on? Psychiatrist Rami Kaminski examined his own "non-belonging" and coined the term "otrovert" to describe someone who looks "neither inward nor outward: our fundamental orientation is defined by the fact that it is rarely the same direction that everyone else is facing". Kaminski discusses abandoning the urge to fit in and the advantages of a life "off the communal grid". Julian Kingma. NewSouth Books. $49.99. This is an incredibly confronting book. It is also an incredibly intimate and important book, because it is about voluntary assisted dying. It tells the stories of people courageously facing the final day of their life on their own terms. Photographer Julian Kingma spent a year documenting VAD, meeting those with incurable conditions, their relatives and carers, and the doctors, pharmacists and palliative specialists who are part of the process. His black-and-white photographs and the words that accompany them are powerful tributes to their subjects, whose stories will help others to understand. With essays by Andrew Denton and Richard Flanagan. Michael Robotham. Hachette. $32.99. First introduced in Michael Robotham's hit 2021 crime thriller When You Are Mine, PC Philomena McCarthy is a devoted London cop whose father and uncles just so happen to be old-school crims. In this new saga, PC McCarthy is called to a jewellery store robbery when she discovers a child in pyjamas wandering the street whose family has been targeted in a violent home invasion. The links between the two crimes, and evidence suggesting her father is involved, thrust our heroine into a gang war; her career in jeopardy and her family dangerously outgunned by a vicious new underbelly boss. P.A. Thomas. Echo Publishing. $32.99. Byron Bay-based P. A. Thomas, who studied medicine in Newcastle and now works as a specialist at a Brisbane public hospital, follows his 2024 debut The Beacon with another Byron-set murder mystery featuring Jack Harris, a reporter at the local newspaper, The Beacon. When forensic pathologist Nicola Fox arrives for a long-overdue break at her beachside holiday house she's shocked to discover someone sunbaking on a sun lounge in the backyard - and the bloke's been dead for some time. When police suggest she is their prime suspect, Nicola teams up with journalist Jack to investigate the who, want, when, where and why. The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson Belinda Lyons-Lee. Transit Lounge. $34.99. Australian author Belinda Lyons-Lee's 2021 debut novel, Tussaud, was based on the life of Madame Marie Tussaud, who was forced to make wax death masks of those guillotined during the French Revolution. Her new literary historical fiction explores the relationship believed to have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Told in the voice of Robert's wife Fanny, this gothic saga blending biography and macabre murder mystery is set in 19th-century France and Scotland and follows Robert's friendship with the seemingly charming Eugene Chantrelle, who was tried and hanged for murdering his wife. Brandon Jack. Summit Books. $34.99. The son of Balmain Tigers rugby league legend Garry Jack and younger brother of Sydney Swans legend Kieren Jack, Brandon Jack played 28 AFL games for the Swans - 28 being the title he gave his bold 2021 memoir about a footy dream thwarted. Now Jack parlays those experiences into his debut novel, a satire of a professional football club full of towering egos, toxic machismo, painkillers and perverse rituals, where fringe players Fangs, Stick, Squidman and Shaggers chase on-field adulation - if they can survive the locker room. "Nothing like this has ever happened at a footy club. Honest," the back cover blurb winks. Read Michael Robotham's new crime saga The White Crow and Helen Trinca's Looking for Elizabeth. Helen Trinca. La Trobe University Press. $36.99. The acclaimed Australian novelist Elizabeth Harrower was in full command of her craft when, after the publication of her fourth book, The Watch Tower, and suffering from writer's block, she stopped writing and faded from view. Harrower's withdrawal from literary life after missing out on the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 1967 earned her frequent admonishments from her irascible friend Patrick White, but it wasn't until decades later that she permitted her final novel, In Certain Circles, to be published. Trinca explores Harrower's sense of abandonment and how, even 70 years after the fact, she still described herself as "a divorced child". Kate Marvel. Scribe. $36.99. Climate scientist Kate Marvel offers a refreshingly different perspective on our changing planet by anchoring her thoughts in emotions. Each of the nine chapters uses a different feeling - from wonder to grief and love - to illuminate the complex realities of climate change. Drawing on science, memory, and even moments of humour, Marvel blends intellect with intimacy to reveal the personal stakes of a global crisis. "The future remains uncertain," she writes. "But I'm sending my children there, and they are never coming back. I think about it every day. And then, I feel." An eloquent discussion about a shifting world. Dr Rami Kaminski. Scribe. $32.99. Are you the awkward odd one out at parties, but completely comfortable - even energised - when socialising over dinner with a friend? You're definitely not an extrovert, but how can you be an introvert? You don't crave solitude, so what's going on? Psychiatrist Rami Kaminski examined his own "non-belonging" and coined the term "otrovert" to describe someone who looks "neither inward nor outward: our fundamental orientation is defined by the fact that it is rarely the same direction that everyone else is facing". Kaminski discusses abandoning the urge to fit in and the advantages of a life "off the communal grid". Julian Kingma. NewSouth Books. $49.99. This is an incredibly confronting book. It is also an incredibly intimate and important book, because it is about voluntary assisted dying. It tells the stories of people courageously facing the final day of their life on their own terms. Photographer Julian Kingma spent a year documenting VAD, meeting those with incurable conditions, their relatives and carers, and the doctors, pharmacists and palliative specialists who are part of the process. His black-and-white photographs and the words that accompany them are powerful tributes to their subjects, whose stories will help others to understand. With essays by Andrew Denton and Richard Flanagan. Michael Robotham. Hachette. $32.99. First introduced in Michael Robotham's hit 2021 crime thriller When You Are Mine, PC Philomena McCarthy is a devoted London cop whose father and uncles just so happen to be old-school crims. In this new saga, PC McCarthy is called to a jewellery store robbery when she discovers a child in pyjamas wandering the street whose family has been targeted in a violent home invasion. The links between the two crimes, and evidence suggesting her father is involved, thrust our heroine into a gang war; her career in jeopardy and her family dangerously outgunned by a vicious new underbelly boss. P.A. Thomas. Echo Publishing. $32.99. Byron Bay-based P. A. Thomas, who studied medicine in Newcastle and now works as a specialist at a Brisbane public hospital, follows his 2024 debut The Beacon with another Byron-set murder mystery featuring Jack Harris, a reporter at the local newspaper, The Beacon. When forensic pathologist Nicola Fox arrives for a long-overdue break at her beachside holiday house she's shocked to discover someone sunbaking on a sun lounge in the backyard - and the bloke's been dead for some time. When police suggest she is their prime suspect, Nicola teams up with journalist Jack to investigate the who, want, when, where and why. The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson Belinda Lyons-Lee. Transit Lounge. $34.99. Australian author Belinda Lyons-Lee's 2021 debut novel, Tussaud, was based on the life of Madame Marie Tussaud, who was forced to make wax death masks of those guillotined during the French Revolution. Her new literary historical fiction explores the relationship believed to have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Told in the voice of Robert's wife Fanny, this gothic saga blending biography and macabre murder mystery is set in 19th-century France and Scotland and follows Robert's friendship with the seemingly charming Eugene Chantrelle, who was tried and hanged for murdering his wife. Brandon Jack. Summit Books. $34.99. The son of Balmain Tigers rugby league legend Garry Jack and younger brother of Sydney Swans legend Kieren Jack, Brandon Jack played 28 AFL games for the Swans - 28 being the title he gave his bold 2021 memoir about a footy dream thwarted. Now Jack parlays those experiences into his debut novel, a satire of a professional football club full of towering egos, toxic machismo, painkillers and perverse rituals, where fringe players Fangs, Stick, Squidman and Shaggers chase on-field adulation - if they can survive the locker room. "Nothing like this has ever happened at a footy club. Honest," the back cover blurb winks. Read Michael Robotham's new crime saga The White Crow and Helen Trinca's Looking for Elizabeth. Helen Trinca. La Trobe University Press. $36.99. The acclaimed Australian novelist Elizabeth Harrower was in full command of her craft when, after the publication of her fourth book, The Watch Tower, and suffering from writer's block, she stopped writing and faded from view. Harrower's withdrawal from literary life after missing out on the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 1967 earned her frequent admonishments from her irascible friend Patrick White, but it wasn't until decades later that she permitted her final novel, In Certain Circles, to be published. Trinca explores Harrower's sense of abandonment and how, even 70 years after the fact, she still described herself as "a divorced child". Kate Marvel. Scribe. $36.99. Climate scientist Kate Marvel offers a refreshingly different perspective on our changing planet by anchoring her thoughts in emotions. Each of the nine chapters uses a different feeling - from wonder to grief and love - to illuminate the complex realities of climate change. Drawing on science, memory, and even moments of humour, Marvel blends intellect with intimacy to reveal the personal stakes of a global crisis. "The future remains uncertain," she writes. "But I'm sending my children there, and they are never coming back. I think about it every day. And then, I feel." An eloquent discussion about a shifting world. Dr Rami Kaminski. Scribe. $32.99. Are you the awkward odd one out at parties, but completely comfortable - even energised - when socialising over dinner with a friend? You're definitely not an extrovert, but how can you be an introvert? You don't crave solitude, so what's going on? Psychiatrist Rami Kaminski examined his own "non-belonging" and coined the term "otrovert" to describe someone who looks "neither inward nor outward: our fundamental orientation is defined by the fact that it is rarely the same direction that everyone else is facing". Kaminski discusses abandoning the urge to fit in and the advantages of a life "off the communal grid". Julian Kingma. NewSouth Books. $49.99. This is an incredibly confronting book. It is also an incredibly intimate and important book, because it is about voluntary assisted dying. It tells the stories of people courageously facing the final day of their life on their own terms. Photographer Julian Kingma spent a year documenting VAD, meeting those with incurable conditions, their relatives and carers, and the doctors, pharmacists and palliative specialists who are part of the process. His black-and-white photographs and the words that accompany them are powerful tributes to their subjects, whose stories will help others to understand. With essays by Andrew Denton and Richard Flanagan. Michael Robotham. Hachette. $32.99. First introduced in Michael Robotham's hit 2021 crime thriller When You Are Mine, PC Philomena McCarthy is a devoted London cop whose father and uncles just so happen to be old-school crims. In this new saga, PC McCarthy is called to a jewellery store robbery when she discovers a child in pyjamas wandering the street whose family has been targeted in a violent home invasion. The links between the two crimes, and evidence suggesting her father is involved, thrust our heroine into a gang war; her career in jeopardy and her family dangerously outgunned by a vicious new underbelly boss. P.A. Thomas. Echo Publishing. $32.99. Byron Bay-based P. A. Thomas, who studied medicine in Newcastle and now works as a specialist at a Brisbane public hospital, follows his 2024 debut The Beacon with another Byron-set murder mystery featuring Jack Harris, a reporter at the local newspaper, The Beacon. When forensic pathologist Nicola Fox arrives for a long-overdue break at her beachside holiday house she's shocked to discover someone sunbaking on a sun lounge in the backyard - and the bloke's been dead for some time. When police suggest she is their prime suspect, Nicola teams up with journalist Jack to investigate the who, want, when, where and why. The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson Belinda Lyons-Lee. Transit Lounge. $34.99. Australian author Belinda Lyons-Lee's 2021 debut novel, Tussaud, was based on the life of Madame Marie Tussaud, who was forced to make wax death masks of those guillotined during the French Revolution. Her new literary historical fiction explores the relationship believed to have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Told in the voice of Robert's wife Fanny, this gothic saga blending biography and macabre murder mystery is set in 19th-century France and Scotland and follows Robert's friendship with the seemingly charming Eugene Chantrelle, who was tried and hanged for murdering his wife. Brandon Jack. Summit Books. $34.99. The son of Balmain Tigers rugby league legend Garry Jack and younger brother of Sydney Swans legend Kieren Jack, Brandon Jack played 28 AFL games for the Swans - 28 being the title he gave his bold 2021 memoir about a footy dream thwarted. Now Jack parlays those experiences into his debut novel, a satire of a professional football club full of towering egos, toxic machismo, painkillers and perverse rituals, where fringe players Fangs, Stick, Squidman and Shaggers chase on-field adulation - if they can survive the locker room. "Nothing like this has ever happened at a footy club. Honest," the back cover blurb winks. Read Michael Robotham's new crime saga The White Crow and Helen Trinca's Looking for Elizabeth. Helen Trinca. La Trobe University Press. $36.99. The acclaimed Australian novelist Elizabeth Harrower was in full command of her craft when, after the publication of her fourth book, The Watch Tower, and suffering from writer's block, she stopped writing and faded from view. Harrower's withdrawal from literary life after missing out on the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 1967 earned her frequent admonishments from her irascible friend Patrick White, but it wasn't until decades later that she permitted her final novel, In Certain Circles, to be published. Trinca explores Harrower's sense of abandonment and how, even 70 years after the fact, she still described herself as "a divorced child". Kate Marvel. Scribe. $36.99. Climate scientist Kate Marvel offers a refreshingly different perspective on our changing planet by anchoring her thoughts in emotions. Each of the nine chapters uses a different feeling - from wonder to grief and love - to illuminate the complex realities of climate change. Drawing on science, memory, and even moments of humour, Marvel blends intellect with intimacy to reveal the personal stakes of a global crisis. "The future remains uncertain," she writes. "But I'm sending my children there, and they are never coming back. I think about it every day. And then, I feel." An eloquent discussion about a shifting world. Dr Rami Kaminski. Scribe. $32.99. Are you the awkward odd one out at parties, but completely comfortable - even energised - when socialising over dinner with a friend? You're definitely not an extrovert, but how can you be an introvert? You don't crave solitude, so what's going on? Psychiatrist Rami Kaminski examined his own "non-belonging" and coined the term "otrovert" to describe someone who looks "neither inward nor outward: our fundamental orientation is defined by the fact that it is rarely the same direction that everyone else is facing". Kaminski discusses abandoning the urge to fit in and the advantages of a life "off the communal grid". Julian Kingma. NewSouth Books. $49.99. This is an incredibly confronting book. It is also an incredibly intimate and important book, because it is about voluntary assisted dying. It tells the stories of people courageously facing the final day of their life on their own terms. Photographer Julian Kingma spent a year documenting VAD, meeting those with incurable conditions, their relatives and carers, and the doctors, pharmacists and palliative specialists who are part of the process. His black-and-white photographs and the words that accompany them are powerful tributes to their subjects, whose stories will help others to understand. With essays by Andrew Denton and Richard Flanagan. Michael Robotham. Hachette. $32.99. First introduced in Michael Robotham's hit 2021 crime thriller When You Are Mine, PC Philomena McCarthy is a devoted London cop whose father and uncles just so happen to be old-school crims. In this new saga, PC McCarthy is called to a jewellery store robbery when she discovers a child in pyjamas wandering the street whose family has been targeted in a violent home invasion. The links between the two crimes, and evidence suggesting her father is involved, thrust our heroine into a gang war; her career in jeopardy and her family dangerously outgunned by a vicious new underbelly boss. P.A. Thomas. Echo Publishing. $32.99. Byron Bay-based P. A. Thomas, who studied medicine in Newcastle and now works as a specialist at a Brisbane public hospital, follows his 2024 debut The Beacon with another Byron-set murder mystery featuring Jack Harris, a reporter at the local newspaper, The Beacon. When forensic pathologist Nicola Fox arrives for a long-overdue break at her beachside holiday house she's shocked to discover someone sunbaking on a sun lounge in the backyard - and the bloke's been dead for some time. When police suggest she is their prime suspect, Nicola teams up with journalist Jack to investigate the who, want, when, where and why. The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson Belinda Lyons-Lee. Transit Lounge. $34.99. Australian author Belinda Lyons-Lee's 2021 debut novel, Tussaud, was based on the life of Madame Marie Tussaud, who was forced to make wax death masks of those guillotined during the French Revolution. Her new literary historical fiction explores the relationship believed to have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Told in the voice of Robert's wife Fanny, this gothic saga blending biography and macabre murder mystery is set in 19th-century France and Scotland and follows Robert's friendship with the seemingly charming Eugene Chantrelle, who was tried and hanged for murdering his wife. Brandon Jack. Summit Books. $34.99. The son of Balmain Tigers rugby league legend Garry Jack and younger brother of Sydney Swans legend Kieren Jack, Brandon Jack played 28 AFL games for the Swans - 28 being the title he gave his bold 2021 memoir about a footy dream thwarted. Now Jack parlays those experiences into his debut novel, a satire of a professional football club full of towering egos, toxic machismo, painkillers and perverse rituals, where fringe players Fangs, Stick, Squidman and Shaggers chase on-field adulation - if they can survive the locker room. "Nothing like this has ever happened at a footy club. Honest," the back cover blurb winks.
