After their parent's death, siblings Han and Miso are forced into
destitution and life upon the streets of Korea.However, Miso is rescued
from poverty at the age of ten by an English family, and leaving her
younger brother in Korea to fend for himself, she escapes to England and
a life of prosperity.
Set in modern day Korea, This Isn't Romance opens with the first meeting
between the estranged siblings after their separation as children.Miso,
driven by guilt over the abandonment, returns to Korea to seek out Han
and make amends for the past but in doing so rekindles the dangerous
passions within their relationship.What ensues is a provocative and
controversial drama incorporating themes of violence, tempestuous incest
and self-brutality.
However, despite the traumas which haunt the drama and siblings lives,
the play closes upon a sense of resolution and hope, presenting the
reconciled pair looking forward to their new future together. This Isn't
Romance is Chappell's first professional production, an extraordinary
debut which won her the Soho Theatre's Verity Bargate Award in 2007. It
opened at the Soho Theatre in February 2009.