The black comedies of the Korean playwright Lee Gun-sam

portray the life of modern day people with both sarcasm and humor.

In the ongoing series, “Rediscovering Modern Korean Dramas”, the National Theater of Korea celebrates powerful works of drama that are already considered by many to be theater classics. Last year, Sir Hypocrite Is Alive, Lee Yeong-nyeo, and Mud Hut were staged. This year, the series continues with A New Common Sense written by Lee Gun-sam. At a time when realism was the leading trend in theater, Lee chose to write comedies, putting greater emphasis on the audience’s enjoyment in and reaction to their theater experience. His experimentation with the genre and speedy development of stories drew many young people to the theater. Lee’s wish for the audience to also discover the tragedy underlying his comedies is realized by Seo Chung-sik, who has both the artistic ability and sensitivity as a director to stage this 1966 play in a way that allows it to resonate with the audience of the 21^st century. Director Seo’s ceaseless probing and questioning of the text and the actors’ passionate endeavors to bring flesh and blood to the characters combine to breathe new life into this contemporary production of a modern classic play.

A New Common Sense portrays a simple, hardworking man who opens his eyes to the world of deviousness.

It is a play for anyone who has ever felt or been rejected and dejected in life.

As a writer who also had to struggle to make a living, Lee Gun-sam’s play reveals his own experiences trying to keep his head above water in a society of injustice with a twisted and hypocritical value system. The main character in the play Kim Sang-beom comes to perceive the world of deviousness as the only way for him and other people trying to do their best to survive in this cold and heartless world. Once Kim embraces a new way of life based on cheating, scheming, and betraying, he rides the escalator to success. Using whatever means available to rise up the social ladder, Kim’s comical actions bring out bitter laughter from the audience members, who ultimately must decide whether his devious ways offer any real and meaningful way to success, no matter how slim.

 “You just can’t see things, can you? You need a new attitude!”

Synopsis

Kim Sang-beom is a thirty-one year old temporary worker at a steel company who has never dated anyone. All he can do is flip through the pages of adult magazines or gawk at the women who sing in the church choir. One day, he catches the attention of the company president who later gives him a permanent position. As Sang-beom gains confidence, he starts dating Park Yong-ja and even thinks about marrying her. However, his older brother who also found Yong-ja attractive makes the first move and sudden announces that he will marry her. Shocked by the betrayal of his own brother, Sang-beom decides to change his attitude towards life and pursue what he calls “the new morality,” a Machiavellian approach involving scheming, cheating, and conniving to get what he wants. Armed with this new morality, he uses and exploits the people around him: the accounting manager, his next door neighbor, the company president’s daughter-in-law who has become a widow, and her lover. Sang-beom eventually rises to a high and powerful position in the company, but does he also find the happiness he so yearns for?