World Music Theatre Festival 2026 — National Theater of Korea
The National Theater of Korea's festival built around changgeuk — Korean traditional opera — runs from September 3 to 26, 2026, with invited productions from Thailand and China alongside Korean companies. Three weeks of sung theatre at the foot of Namsan.
World Music Theatre Festival 2026 — National Theater of Korea
Changgeuk, and everything next to it
The festival — officially the 2026 World Music Theatre Festival Centred on Changgeuk, subtitled Music Drama Odyssey — runs at the National Theater of Korea from September 3 to 26, 2026. Its centre is changgeuk, the staged form of pansori — Korean sung storytelling — and around it the festival puts music theatre from elsewhere in Asia on the same stages.
The 2026 line-up
- Sep 3–6 — National Theater of Korea, Ong Ong Ong, a barrier-free music theatre production (Daloreum Theatre)
- Sep 4–5 — Royal Thai Dance Troupe, Thai Ministry of Culture, Khon: The Story of Ramakien (Haneul Theatre)
- Sep 12–13 — National Gugak Center of Namwon, The Dokgabi House Cart Song (Haneul Theatre)
- Sep 12–13 — Shanghai Peking Opera Theatre, Prince Zidan’s Revenge (Haeoreum Grand Theatre)
- Sep 17–18 — Jeonnam-Gwangju Metropolitan Changgeuk Company, Huigyeongnu Banghoedo (Daloreum Theatre)
- Sep 18–19 — Pansori Factory Badaksori, Haenyeo Detective Hong Sherlock (Haneul Theatre)
- Sep 24–26 — Hyesung Company, Baekmansa (Daloreum Theatre)
Going as a visitor
Sung theatre in a language you do not speak sounds like a hard sell, and it is not. The Shanghai Peking Opera production is a Chinese Hamlet, and the Thai Khon is masked dance built on the Ramayana — both are stories you likely already know, told in a form you probably have not seen live. Ask about subtitle languages when booking; the National Theater sits below Namsan, a short walk from Dongguk University Station. And if you would rather not book anything at all, the festival runs a free outdoor stage: Changchang STAGE, in front of the clock tower on the theatre’s culture plaza, on Saturdays and Sundays from September 5 to 13. Young pansori singers and drummers perform key passages from the five surviving pansori works, and anyone walking past can stop and watch.
