[On Stage] The Play 'Wangseogae Iyagi' Matching the Profound Stage of Namsan Drama Center

Online Screening on Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture YouTube and Naver TV on 27-28

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Watching the play 'Wang Seogae Story,' I was once again struck by how deep the stage at Namsan Arts Center Drama Center is.

The Drama Center, built in 1962, is the oldest theater in Korea dedicated exclusively to plays. Its stage is modeled after the ancient Greek outdoor amphitheater. There is an aura that this is a space meant for theater. The tiered seating is excellent. Sitting in the back rows, you feel like you are watching the play deeply rather than from a distance.

'Wang Seogae Story' deals with a man’s deeply held long-standing grudge, which harmonized well with the old and deep stage of the Drama Center.

Wang Seogae is a Chinese man who delivers goods in Yokohama Chinatown, Japan. He originally lived in Manchuria and was a horse trader. He lost his wife and daughter due to the Japanese army invading Manchuria in the 1930s. After the war ended, he came to Japan. The core of the play is about Wang Seogae meeting one by one the Japanese soldiers who murdered his wife and daughter after 21 years.

The play evokes a peculiar perspective. The perpetrators in the play are Japanese, and the victims are Chinese, but the play was created in Korea, and the audience watching it is Korean. Historically, Korea was also trampled by Japan, but Korea’s tragedy is excluded from the play. This setting is likely to influence the Korean audience’s perspective in some way.

Play 'Wangseogae Story'
[Photo by Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture]

The gaze of the victim Wang Seogae toward the perpetrators is also peculiar. The Japanese men Wang Seogae meets one by one are his mortal enemies who killed his wife and daughter. Yet Wang Seogae offers them tea. He says it is really good tea. This is far from the act of revenge that one might think of when meeting an enemy. Wang Seogae does not seek revenge. While offering tea, he asks them only one thing: where he can find his wife’s body.

However, contrary to Wang Seogae’s intention, the story he tells becomes a kind of revenge on the Japanese soldiers. Just listening to Wang Seogae’s story torments the Japanese soldiers. For them, the war is also an unpleasant memory, as perceived by the audience.

The post-war lives of the Japanese soldiers who killed Wang Seogae’s wife and daughter vary. Nakano is already dead, but Impal became a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, and Lily is bedridden, paralyzed. The life of Impal, who seems the most successful, contrasts with Lily’s life, which seems no different from being dead. However, Impal hands Wang Seogae his sword, telling him to kill him. On the other hand, Lily screams for Wang Seogae not to shoot when he points a gun at her.

Impal, who seems to live the most intact life, asks to be killed, while Lily, who seems already dead, begs to be spared. These two paradoxical scenes appear as a horrific chaos.

Alive but not living a whole life, sometimes wanting to give up on life, yet still desiring to live ? this chaotic mix of desires writhes. This chaos shows that even the perpetrators of war are ultimately victims.

Wang Seogae seems to know this, offering tea and acting as if he has already forgiven them. 'Wang Seogae Story' draws deep reflections on life and war by viewing the lives of perpetrators and victims after the war from a third-party perspective.

The theater critics’ group 'Gathering for Performance and Theory' (hereafter Gongimo) awarded 'Wang Seogae Story' the 'Performance and Theory Work Award' in 2020. The Korean Theater Critics Association (President Kim Mido) also selected 'Wang Seogae Story' as one of the 'Top 3 Plays of the Year' along with 'Dry Land' and 'We Are Not Joking.' Monthly Korean Theater included 'Wang Seogae Story' in its '2020 Performance Best 7.'

Namsan Arts Center Drama Center
Photo by Yonhap News Agency

The Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture will screen 'Wang Seogae Story' on the 27th and 28th on its official YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/sfacmovie)㏏ and Naver TV (tv.naver.com/sfacmovie). Since the 23rd, it has been screening four programs of this season under the name 'Barrier-Free Online Theater.' It has completed screenings of 'Acacia and What Swallows Acacia' (23rd-24th) and 'Namsan Arts Center Great Revival Meeting' (25th-26th), and on the 29th and 30th, it will screen 'Human Fugue,' a stage adaptation of Han Kang’s novel 'The Boy is Coming.'

'Wang Seogae Story' was the last original premiere presented by the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture at the Drama Center (performed from October 28 to November 8). The owner of the Drama Center is Dongrang Arts Institute, the school corporation of Seoul Institute of the Arts. Since 2009, Seoul City has leased the Drama Center from Seoul Institute of the Arts, and the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture has operated it as a public theater. However, Seoul City and Seoul Institute of the Arts decided not to renew the lease contract after this year.

In the theater community, there are calls to keep the Drama Center as a public theater. This is because Dongrang Yuchijin, who established the Drama Center, is accused of unfairly privatizing it. It is said that Yuchijin received government favors to establish the Drama Center and then transferred ownership to Dongrang Arts Institute through irregular means.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.