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Home : Program : Theatre |
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Don't be shocked - Korea
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| Time : |
Nov 11(Wed) ~ Nov 15(Sun)
Wed~Fri 20:00
Sat 15:00, 18:00
Sun 15:00 |
| Venue : |
Arko Arts Theater Small Hall |
| Ticket Price : |
General : 30,000 won
Under Grad and Grad students(or under 26) : 20,000 won
Middle and High School Students : 10,000 won |
| Company : |
Golmokil Theatre |
| Original Work : |
Kunhyung Park |
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A world filled with wonders and surprises... and yet it is a world with no such surprises in store. A family fed up with hunger... even when they are laughing, tears roll down naturally. A popular work by Director, Kunhyung Park. |
- Don't be Shocked premiered between January 7-February 1, 2009, at the Sanwoolim. The piece was the first work presented at the Drama Directors Series 4 'Park Kun Hyung' hosted by Sanwoolim in celebration of Hundred Years in Korean Modern Drama. It was the center of attention and received high acclaim from both critics and the audience for the fine acting, superb directorship and dramatic structure. It will be presented at SPAF2009, the performance arts festival representing Korea.
- Synopsis
A husband who wants to become a film director is struggling to turn his work into a film during such economically demanding times. Hard pressed, the wife is finally forced to work as a hostess at a Karaoke bar. One day, the father-in-law (father of the husband) commits suicide after being distressed at seeing his wife, who had long since left home, dressed in white funeral clothes at the funeral of an estranged friend. The father-in-law is dead, but the family is not even thinking about going ahead with the funeral. The husband is busy reworking his film script, while the wife goes to work as usual to the bar filled with eager customers. In the meantime, the constipated brother-in-law stays put near the dead body complaining that the fan in the toilet is broken.
Nothing much has changed in their lives even though their father has passed away...
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In the streets, the cold wind is biting.
People no longer have any shelter for either their minds or their bodies.
Let us show you a family.
What is decrepit is not the unfinished house, but the people who live inside.
Don't just brush aside the scene mumbling to yourself that
this can't be true…
Because we all live in the midst of that rough construction
Where there is no father and no human relationship and
We live in a world that makes no sense at all...
(From the director's script) |
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| Director |
- Park Kun Hyung : Representing Golmokil Theater / Playwright / Director
Park made his mark in the world of drama with In Celebration of Youth in 1999. Both critics and the public alike recognized and praised him and he almost monopolized all the prizes and awards that tear. He was quickly seen as the director of the next generation. His plays portray the everyday lives of the modern underdog. He is against dramatic formats, linguistics and artificial acting. Without hesitation and nonchalance, he shows us that the terminal of our depressive everyday lives is despair. At the same time, he is an attractive director who reminds the audience of the likelihood that hope is somewhere to be found. |
| Company |
Golmokil (winding back alley) is our home.
Friends from early childhood, traces of the everyday life, graffiti on the walls, somebody singing...
That is where we learned about life and stored our memory.
Golmokil is life.
It is the place the people who have flocked to the cities
in an attempt to escape the back alleys of life
return to with yearning.
Golmokil Theater is a theater company
set up by director Park Kun Hyung in 2003
with fellow dramatists.
Like a small tavern in the alley one goes into
after lifting the store screen around early evening,
Golmokil Theater wishes to return to those
visiting the theater,
their nostalgia and sentiments they have lost contact with.
For those who yearn for the comforts of the back alley
rather than the feeling of emptiness for no reason in the middle of the street,
and for those who have never been to the back alley,
we want to let you hear our heart-rending story of life.
http://club.cyworld.com/golmokil |
Reviews
Seoul Shinmun (January 10, 2009) – reported by Lee Soon-Nyoe
Satirical play 'Don't' be Shocked' directed by Park Kun Hyung
A family rotten to its core, Laugh and feel the tears running
The title of the piece is 'Don't' be Shocked' but one can easily hear uninterrupted laughter exploding in the audience. Even though the audience is facing a family that has been destroyed to its roots, and lives that have fallen so low that they are so pathetic, they are cheerful more than sad. The real situation is too severe while the characters forced into the situation are sincere. Yet it is a life that is comic seen from the third person.
Hankyorae (January 21, 2009) – Kim Myung-Wha / Drama critic and playwright
[Review] Play 'Don't' be Shocked'
Critique of Korean society with its crumbling families
Sly mixture of ultra-realism and the absurdity of life
People, who are reeking of the odor of the horrendous putrid cistern-like world, while they have gotten rid of the safety pin as if they can no longer endure the absurdities of life, have been forced upon us. It is too horrifying to watch them. One is confronted with the thought of having to endure the whole thing in consideration of the person who is actually doing the fighting in the midst of it all and at the same time, to run away from the terrible odor as soon as possible.
Korea Drama Monthly (February 2009) – Lee Kyung-Mi / Drama Critic
Too ghastly a drama, the hideousness of us all
Golmokil Theater presents
Can this be for real? Is there any family that is like this one? If you are sniggering at the stage with an uncomfortable feeling, then you will find yourself suddenly drawn into the very heart this horribly disconcerting piece. You can also discover our past history and our shameful reality. What makes this piece stand out is that the director has replaced the story narrated by the immature father with that of the first-born son. Guess the present reality is too terrible and precarious to twist and turn the unwholesome history of this land using the scoundrel of a father.
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