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Home : Program : Theatre |
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Beat your youth on the back - Korea
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| Time : |
Oct 21(Wed) ~ Oct 25(Sun)
Wed : 20:00
Thu~Sat : 16:00, 20:00
Sun : 16:00 |
| Venue : |
Arko Arts Theater Small Hall |
| Original Work : |
WonJong Choi |
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The future, sentiments, sex, everything is uncertain. – The pains of growing up being thirty-something
Wishing for a life like Haruki's by those who have turned into a peripheral presence.
For those fans of the Japanese writer, Murakami Haruki, home in!
A story about the pains of growing up for adults in their mid-thirties. Isn't this possibly your story? |
Beat your Youth on the Back is a play written by Choi Won-Jong. Selected as part of the Young Artist Support Project, it was eligible for support from the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture in 2007. Song Sun-Ho and Yurangseon put the play, depicting the purity and energy, desire and pain of the younger generation, on stage for the first time.
The main protagonists of the play are young people in their thirties who have lived in a well-off period and spent their teenage years in the midst of ideological confrontation. Undemanding and weak, yet consuming according to their personal preferences, they share different ideas on employment, marriage and bearing children compared to previous generations. Such attitudes and different lifestyles are causing them serious trouble in the real world. Essentially, this piece deals with the pains of growing up by a younger generation of people who are, in fact, grown up yet still growing up. Their dreams of life are rooted in their urban surroundings, lack of nationalism, a bit of nihilism, desire for unfettered freedom, and nomadic tendencies-- reminiscent of the life of Haruki. Their constant muttering of 'I want to live like Haruki.' without any inhibition shows how free and carefree they wish to be and perhaps are.
The children of the 'sentimental generation' brought about by rapid changes in society are perplexed. Support from their sixty-and-over parents has long since ceased or is on the brink of being terminated. They have found themselves as beings of peripheral importance. Faced with such a reality, they continually question their identities. They opt to work and live different lives in their own way while enduring the pains of growing up. Beat your Youth on the Back takes a closer look at their sentiments and feelings and attempts to send a message of hope. It also attempts to draw us into a conversation about the present generation and the pains of growing up that we all go through.
Five friends are sitting inside a sauna. They are high school friends - Geun Ho, Hyung Suk, Sung Ryong, Hyee June and Won Jeong. They start talking about childbirth, adultery and female high school students. The present husband of his ex-wife has just caught Gun Ho going in and out of hotels having an affair with her. Hyung Suk, a high school teacher, has just confessed to his wife, Gi Young that he has slept with a student in his class. Sung Ryong is at the foot of the ladder in terms of stature in a securities firm. He is struggling sending money to his girl friend studying abroad. Young Jin wants to become a comic strip writer, but is in fact being tutored by a junior high school student. In the meantime, Hyee June, who is a lecturer at a university, is about to become a father, but his future is uncertain. Won Jong who vowed that he would not meet his friends again unless he became a successful person has not come. On the night the entire village suffers a power blackout, the friends go back to their high school soccer field with flashlights in tow. They start talking about Gun Ho who went to the police station for his adultery with his ex-wife and Won Jong who has never come to meet his friends. While drinking, they look back on their high school days and talk about literature, Haruki, love and their aspirations. In the dark, they play soccer, a far cry from the earlier days when they were mostly relegated to the benches during soccer matches at high school. The next day, Gi Young leaves her husband, Hyung Suk. In the meantime, Geun Ho and Soo Ryun are sure they love each other, but don't have any idea why they have become what they are now. They affirm their love for each other, but not to a level that sounds convincing to either of them. A week later, the friends meet up again in the sauna. They talk about Gun Ho's travel, Won Jong's success and their feelings of scoring a goal in the game. They are no longer the people that they were just a week ago.
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This is a story of a younger generation in their mid-thirties who have finally become adults. The piece is an indication of the future to be faced by teens and young people in their twenties and suggests the coming generation gap of the future.
Beat your Youth on the Back is a close investigation into the desires, loneliness and instability facing the younger generation. The writer wishes to convey the pain felt by this generation. The director has explored the inner pains in this performance. The concept of 'drama of pose' expresses the inner turmoil or 'expression of the inner self' that remains hidden or under the surface. The inner self is undemanding, receptive and placid. It does not show itself well through existing lines or behavior patterns. The term 'pose' includes pose, position, attitude, the mind and mental state. The physical and psychological distance between the stage and the audience is determined by the effective materialization of 'pose'. The audience is able to read the actors' thoughts and feelings through the graphic pose or the period of a sentence or the pose that acts as a piece of tissue.
This comic play is full of sexual innuendo and even explicit sexual references. The situation and behavior of the characters appear to be comic. But laughter only leads to a deep sense of commiseration. The protagonists are well aware of their problems, which they want desperately to fix. Their meager and yet well-intentioned attempts are what draw laughter and pity. Sexual expressions are far from being erotic. While the characters are not so open-minded about the issue of sex, sex is the most significant element in explaining their way of thinking and behavior. They are not talking about sex as much as 'testifying about' sex. This is what makes this piece stand out from other works that deal with love and anxieties of the younger generation.
Beat your Youth on the Back evolves from the presumption that every generation has its own set of pain in forging a relationship with society and must rely on their 'own initiatives' to handle life and love within that society. Consequently, the protagonists go in search of their own ways. Biographical elements of the author have been reflected with clarity in the play. The inner lives of the younger generation are seamlessly unveiled thanks to the intention of the director to suggest a universal message by capturing the sincerity and dedication of the thirty-something actors who have worked together for a long time.
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| Director |
Song Sun-Ho has suggested 'Dramatics can be recovered with a stage that expands its notion of specificity.' He has presented works that investigate the inner working of human existence such as The Sea and the Umbrella, and A Dream on an Autumn Day. He set up Nomad Theatre Company with actors, drama scholars and staff who have worked with him for several years.
He has been working on 'the physical materialization of dramatic language' and on implanting carefully contrived language onto the dramatic space. Accordingly, the space should be maintained as a physical distance with the audience. Each language and space is determined by the style of performance at each presentation of a piece.
Beat your Youth on the Back, likewise, emphasizes the language of drama to deliver the desires and pains of the younger generation A deep inner space is prepared to allow 'another mode of realism' to set its stage for the portrayal of the desires and pains of this generation. |
| Company |
Under the motto of 'The boat of the soul in search of the light - Putting into action the spirit of exploration', Yurangseon was established in 2008. Since its inception, this new company has been consistent in raising the most fundamental question in drama, 'What is the meaning of arts in modern society?'
The company has been studying Greek tragedy and Shakespearean drama to discuss the 'stage format that best expresses individual life and truth in society'. It has been focusing on works by contemporary playwrights such as Johan August Strindberg, Adolf Fugard and Jon Fosee and Korean drama that examines the theme of human existence.
Currently, it is based in Seoul and Daejun. Its goal is to forge a drama system or drama culture centering on schools. It is expanding its bases to other regions as well. |
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