Latest production at National Jeongdong Theater runs through Nov. 9 with English subtitles
A sense of doom fills the air. On a dim, blue-tinged night, the stage turns slowly, almost dizzyingly. A father paces in agitation before pulling a small vial from his sleeve and, with grim resolve, sprinkles its content -- cheongangsu, a caustic liquid -- into his daughter's eyes. The girl cries out to her father in pain.
The harrowing scene is from "Seopyeonje; The Original," the latest production at the National Jeongdong Theater of Korea, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year with a revival of one of the country's most renowned tales.
The original story, Yi Chung-jun's 1976 novella "Seopyeonje," has been adapted into a landmark 1993 film that became the first in Korean cinema to surpass 1 million viewers, a hit musical and a changgeuk, or traditional Korean opera.
It tells the story of a sorikkun, or pansori singer -- pansori being Korea's traditional form of narrative singing -- who blinds his daughter so she will never abandon her art, as her half brother once did, fleeing the rigors of training.
The latest rendition returns to the work's roots as a "sori drama," foregrounding the beat of the drum and the raw, soaring vocals that define pansori.
"'Seopyeonje' has been a life's work for me -- it's what first bound me to the art of pansori," said acclaimed director Ko Sun-woong, who both adapted and directed the piece. The production reunites Ko with music director Han Seung-seok, whose past hits include major changgeuk productions such as "Madam Ong" and "Rabbit's Eight Sufferings."
"When I read the original novella, I was deeply moved by how it felt as if an entire universe unfolded within that small room where the father and daughter live and breathe through their sound," he added. "It was as if the path of life itself became visible."
As its subtitle, "The Original," suggests, Ko's production strives to stay faithful to Yi's text, distilling pansori to its essence.
He said he wanted to show the act of transforming pain into artistic beauty, rather than focusing solely on the underlying theme of "han" -- a deeply Korean sentiment of sorrow, loss and endurance.
When asked whether the father's cruelty makes him difficult to empathize with, Ko said, "Literature is literature, and a character is a character. He was obsessed with perfecting his (and her) sound before his life ended. His decision -- to sacrifice his daughter's sight -- was cruel and violent, yes. He was a man driven by impossible devotion."
In Yi's narrative, the characters are nameless -- simply the father, the girl and the young man. For Ko, their anonymity is central to the story's power.
"It feels like an old wandering tale," he said. "Once, there was a father, and there was a girl -- and they roamed through the country, singing. They were wanderers of sound, artists who performed without names. That, to me, felt like the essence of 'Seopyeonje.'"
The stage itself is a metaphor for the endless road of life and song with a revolving circular platform on which the performers must keep walking, as if traveling a path with no end.
The father is double-cast between Lim Hyun-bin, music director of the Namwon Municipal Gugak Orchestra, and Ahn Yi-ho of the crossover band Leenalchi. The daughter is played alternately by Kim Woo-jung of the National Changgeuk Company and Park Ji-hyun, a pansori singer and student of Korean traditional music at Seoul National University.
"Seopyeonje; The Original" runs through Nov. 9 at the National Jeongdong Theater in Seoul. English subtitles are provided on both sides of the stage.