It was so much fun that I didn’t want it to end!

There was never a dull moment!

- 2018Reviews

What is the origin of Korean theater? The journey to find answers to this fascinating question first began with Theater Village Yeonhee Madang in 2018. The festival transformed the Baek Seonghui & Jang Minho Theater in Seogye-dong into an outdoor theater, and introduced the theatricality of gut, instantly drawing in audiences who had not been familiar with the traditional shamanic ritual. The following year saw Pansori and Theater continue this fun experiment, where the music and narratives of pansori met contemporary theater. Director Bae Yo-sup evoked immense imagination just with the ‘sound’ of pansori, while director Im Young-wook piqued our curiosity by freely applying deoneum (a unique element of a pansori song) to Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Visit.

The year 2020 is a time for gut! 

Such experiments with traditional yeonhee and pansori that previously captivated all five senses are set to continue this year. In celebration of the summer solstice that heralds the arrival of summer with the sun rising higher up in the sky and days getting longer, this year’s Rediscovery of the Archetype of Korean Theater welcomes the audience with a brand-new program. Under the jovial and energetic title Celebrating the Summer Solstice: Hajimaji nolgutpulgut, Fireworks, a new original play written by Kim Min-Jeong  and directed by Nam In-woo, is presented alongside three unique and highly experimental showcases created by actor Moon Min-hyoung, yeonhaengja Kim Sol-ji, and media artist Ko Dong-uk.

Fireworks

Based on the past two years of experience in exploring and expanding the possibilities of Korean traditional arts, Rediscovery of the Archetype of Korean Theater presents a full-fledged production. Fireworks reinterprets gut not as a primal ritual act but as an encounter between people beyond time and space. Ten actors move across various time-spaces and characters, and disrupt the boundary between fantasy and reality. Beautiful fireworks emerging in brief moments are re-enacted on the stage, and recall memories of brilliant youth, thereby comforting the audience in the present time.

Synopsis

“The fireworks of that day are not over! It’s only a brief moment.”

Ever since that day, Hee-soo has been trapped in the memories of her youth—when she was 20. One day, she was on her way home early in the morning after partying all night with her friends in the neighborhood when a tragic accident took the lives of all but her. She now suffers feelings of indebtedness as if the fireworks they enjoyed together that night still continued to this day. In order to overcome those memories, Hee-soo must now put an end to the fireworks. She constantly searches for the place that her friends crossed over to, but is unable to move on. She has spent years hovering in the dark, space-like room. Now, in order to let go of the sprits of her friends, Hee-soo confronts that fateful ay in the past that completely swallowed up her youth.