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Home : Program : Theatre |
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August Strindberg's <Dream Play> - Korea
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| Time : |
Oct 29(Thu) ~ Nov 2(Mon)
Thu-Fri : 20:00
Sat-Sun ; 16:00, 19:00 |
| Venue : |
Daehangno Arts Theater Small Theater |
| Ticket Price : |
General : 30,000 won
Y/S : 20,000 won |
| Company : |
Independent Performer Group <Dream Play> |
| Original Work : |
August Strindberg |
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Anything can happen. Everything is possible or likely to be possible.
Dream Play by Inde-Performer Group, Dream Play. |
The classical play by the Swedish expressionist playwright, Augustus Strindberg, Dream Play is based on the portrayal of the unconscious. He went against the trend of the times, which valued the realistic and the visible, to concentrate on human emotions and the unconscious. His playwriting, which emphasized the dream world and the unconscious, was bolstered by the psychological approaches of Freud and Jung. Dream Play is a depiction of a world of dreams. Strindberg relied on the image of dreams because they offer the most effective means to express human instincts. In essence, he wished to show the inner world of humans through the imagery of dreams.
Dream Play describes the journey of the daughter of the Indian God Indra, Agnes, who comes to the human world and then goes back to the world of the gods. During her visit, she meets an array of people such as an officer who has a painful past relationship with his mother and has been deserted by his lover, a lawyer who has worked to absolve people of their sins and is stuck with their sins, and a poet who wishes for salvation by bathing in mud. The multitude of ordinary people is grotesque and yet so ordinary. Each of them is faced with a turning point in his or her life. Agnes understands their pain, commiserates with and criticizes them and leads her life as a human being. As can be deduced from the title, the piece divulges the inner side of human emotions using the image of dreams and comparing the human world to a world of dreams.
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The company has sought to produce a new creation through traditional interpretations and modes of expression of a classic that overcome simple regurgitation or formal dissection of the classical text. In looking back at the contemporary trend of realism in drama, it has reconsidered the significance of realism in a contemporary context as well as in the historical framework by investigating expressionism of the 20th century modern art. The aim is to come up with works that allow the audience to affirm the contemporary significance of classical texts and experimental performance arts that are far from being complex or perplexing. The company intends to enhance the imagination of the younger generation through the reading of classical texts and to attempt a unique depiction of the universal theme of "dreams".
The stage is in the image of a huge castle that symbolizes the Earth. To express the abstract image of a wrecked ship, structures looking like sails of a ship are placed with irregularity around the city walls to create the shape of a castle. The huge sail is covered in fabric used effectively to create shadows in the background. A multitude of images can be projected onto the sail using the diverse colors of foot lights. Fourteen episodes including the prologue signify the history of human beings on Earth. On the whole, they constitute a single space, and at the same time, it is important that they possess the image of mutation into different spaces. The Small Hall at the Daehangno Arts Theater allows eighteen actors to create a new space making full use of the effective movements and lighting offered.
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| Director |
Kim Jae-Yeop was born in 1973.
Graduate of the Department of Korean Literature, Yonsei University.
Completed doctorate course at the Department of Drama, School of Drama, Hanyang University
Representing Inde-Performer Group, Dream Play (Playwright and director)
Currently professor at the Department of Film and Arts, Sejong University
Dramatist at Haewhadong Ilbunji (a drama association hosting the Haewhadong Ilbunji Drama Festival)
Kim, Jae-Yeop started his career as a writer when his Persona was chosen as the winner of the Hankook Ilbo Writing Competition in 2002. The same year, he revealed his scripts as a member of the Park Theater with The Stand-up Comedian and the Prime Minister (directed by Park Gwang-Jung) and Check Mate (written and directed by Kim Jae-Yeop). In 2003, he set up the independent performance group of Dream Play and went on to produce The Clock Repairman at Shangri-La (written and directed by Kim Jae-Yeop) and The Nine Hour Glasses (written and directed by Kim Jae-Yeop). The Nine Hour Glasses was selected as the Best Work at the Seoul Fringe Festival to be invited to the Competition of Asia’s New Drama at the Next Wave Festival. He produced Survival Calendar (which he both wrote and directed) and won him the New Artist in 2004 by Arko, followed by a live performance of The Strange Train at a bar. In 2005, the practice hall was opened which transformed Dream Play Project to Inde-Performer Group, Dream Play. His company won the Grand Prix and Best Director Award at the Guchang International Drama Festival for Waiting for the Ghost in 2005 and moved its base to a residential area near Hansung University. He was selected as the participant of Haewhadong Ilbunji in 2006 and produced his autobiographical piece of What ever happened to the Books? (Which he both wrote and directed). The piece earned him the Next Generation Artist in 2005 by Arko Arts Theater. In 2007, he collaborated with Sung Gi-Woong in The Chosun Private Eye Hong Yoon-Shik (written by Sung Gi-Woong and directed by Kim Jae-Yeop), which describes Chosun in the 1930s. In 2008, his portrayal of reality came in the form of Who will save the Young in their Twenties in Korea?, an investigation of the 8.8 million Won earning-generation. It was followed by The People of Jangsukjo (based on the novel by Kim Sojin, adapted and directed by Kim Jae-Yeop) in 2009, an adaptation of the serial by the late author Kim Sojin. |
| Company |
Dream Play is an independent performance group that strives to produce independent creations and stage performances. The undeterred imagination and affirmation of the insightful examination of humans and the world discovered while staging the Swedish playwright, Augustus Strindberg's Dream Play, led the company to choose the name, "Dream Play", which is in solidarity with his intentions. The company aims to depict the mysteries of life that can be easily forgotten in the midst of fantasy and realism through its unique stage language. Moreover, it is interested in paving the way for more independent scenes to secure the identity of performers who support alternative modes of expression and performances. Set up in 2003, Dream Play went through a two-year period of project involvement to finally set up home at a small dream studio near a residential area at Hansung University in 2005. The company offers fresh and unique points of view and hopes to serve as a base camp for creation by young performers and for Dream Play. |
Reviews
Playwright and director, Kim Jae-Yeop, is a rare breed in the drama circle at Daehangno where commercial works are the norm. He has been insisting on drama with a strong social context. He has been persistent in portraying 'the unpalatable truth' even at times when his colleagues saw themselves compromising with commercialism or idealism faced with the downturn in drama. What ever happened to the Books?, staged continuously since 2006, was inspired by 'Today's Books', a book vendor specializing in social science books in front of Yonsei University which since then has gone out of business and describes the painful and heartbreaking experiences of the generation who went to university in the early 90s. In addition, Who will save the Young in their Twenties in Korea? was a funny and hilarious comedy despite its heavy theme. For the generation in their twenties, it was a source of laughter and heart-rending soothing relief.
- Jung Sang-Young, Hankyeorae
Kim Jae-Yeop's plays are full of humor and satire, but they never give up on their genuineness. They are brain wrecking and complex examinations on survival and populism. The resulting discrepancies are intrinsic as well as the outcome of a struggle with the identity of his generation. Check Mate shows a playwright facing death writing about a king who is about to die. It is a piece that describes the relations between death that is at the opposite end of life and fiction as can be deduced from the title, 'Check Mate', that is symbolic of losing a game or facing death in Chess terminology. The formal beauty drawn succinctly, like the moves on the chess board, of the process of melting of the threads of life and death into the fictional creation or the Platonic world view that refuses objective reality is inspiring.
- Kim Myeong-Wha, Drama Critic
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