★★★★★

The 43rd Seoul Theater Festival

Winner of Grand Prize, Best Director, Audience Award

“A superb theatrical exploration of the allegory of good and evil.”

Jury’s commentary, Seoul Theater Festival

This production of The Cloven Viscount already won the hearts of critics and audiences alike for its distinctive theatrical language, and swept three awards the 43rd Seoul Theater Festival: the Grand Prize, Best Director, and Audience Award. This time, the play is staged at the NTCK’s Baek Seonghui & Jang Minho Theater. Director Park Sung-chan’s adaptation of the original novel of the same title by Italo Calvino, a renowned master of fantasy literature, shines with such a unique sense of humor. After a young man named Medardo becomes divided into two people (the pure evil and the absolute good), people both despise and fear him. As we watch them from our seats, we can’t help but wonder if any of us can be said to be a perfect, intact human being. What kind of answer will we find towards the end of the fantastical yet brutal story? Is anyone truly perfect?

SYNOPSIS

The casts start unfolding a story on a dark stage. The good-natured clowns dressed in shabby clothes tell the story of the Viscount Medardo in his youth. The young nobleman is caught up in a whirlpool of elusive emotions, and a mixture of good and evil bursts forth in confusion. Medardo goes to fight the infidels, but ends up getting split in two by a cannonball. Only the right half of Medardo, which is the absolute evil, survives and returns home to cause bewilderment and misery for the people. As a result, intact people come to live under the rule of the cloven viscount. Just as they get used to the new way of living, the other half of Medardo—the left side which is the absolute good, comes back.

Original Story Written by Italo Calvino

Born in Cuba, Italo Calvino was an Italian writer. His first novel, The Path to the Nest of Spiders, was published in 1947. In addition to writing several allegorical novels such as The Baron in the Trees and The Nonexistent Knight, Calvino pioneered the field of science fiction with works like Cosmicomics and t zero. The original novel The Cloven Viscount is part of Italo Calvino’s trilogy Our Ancestors, which includes The Baron in the Trees and The Nonexistent Knight, and conveys some profound messages about modern society. In The Cloven Viscount, the Viscount Medardo of Terralba joins the army in the Turkish wars of the 17th century. The fantastical story of a naïve young man who goes to war and gets split into two (the good and the bad) by a cannonball reflects the morally divided, hurt, and marginalized people of modern times.

Adapted & Directed by Park Sung-chan

President of Creative Group Sungchanpa

Major directorial credits: Hangman, Nude King, and Sireureung Ppijjug Hallappung

The 43rd Seoul Theater Festival Grand Prize (2022), The Cloven Viscount,

The 37th Korea Theater Festival Best Director (2019), Hangman

Gimcheon International Theater Festival for Family Best Stage Design (2013), Tree and Child

ASSITEJ Theater Festival Best Stage Design (2004), Tetterwort