User Manual for a Broken Machine

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?

Reviews

★★★★★
“Thoughtful and thoroughly engaging”
North West End UK

★★★★
“Darkly comic and uniquely creative”
The Upcoming

Next performances

Voila! Festival · Theatro Technis, London
11 & 12 November 2026 · 7pm

BOOK TICKETS →

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)