"These Days When Stalker Murders Are a Social Issue, the Message Carmen Gives Is Timely"

Seoul City Theater Troupe Play 'Carmen' Dramaturg Choi Yeo-jeong
Carmen is a 'Stalking Victim,' Not a Femme Fatale
Don Jose is a 'Stalker' Blinded by Possessiveness
Dramaturg as a Mediator Connecting Creators and Audience

Since its premiere in 1875, the protagonist of Georges Bizet's opera 'Carmen' has been depicted as the epitome of a femme fatale. The diligent soldier Don Jose abandons even his fianc?e and becomes obsessed with Carmen, ultimately killing her. Carmen's free-spirited love life has been seen as an excuse for Don Jose's murder.

Play 'Carmen'
[Photo by Seoul City Theater Company]

However, love cannot be experienced alone, and obsession cannot become love. Perhaps Carmen has long been criticized under public misunderstanding. Choi Yeo-jeong, the dramaturg who participated in the Seoul Metropolitan Theater Company's reinterpretation of 'Carmen,' said, "With safe breakups and stalker murders emerging as social issues, it was a timely reflection on how we should view Carmen today."

Director Ko Sun-woong's Carmen conveys a message about the meaning of love. His Carmen is independent and confident. Choi introduced, "In the play 'Carmen,' she is a victim stalked by Don Jose, but she does not appear as a victim and confronts the situation with confidence." Even when her change of heart threatens her life, Carmen responds, "This is the path I must take; I refuse to back down. I don't care if it means death! I will follow Carmen's path."

The more prominent Carmen's confident image becomes, the more Don Jose's mad obsession is highlighted. Choi explained, "Since Prosper M?rim?e's original 1845 novel, Don Jose has mostly been portrayed with a sympathetic gaze. Breaking that stereotype, this play reinterprets the story as one about Carmen, who fearlessly moves forward even in the face of death, and Don Jose, who should not have acted as he did."

As a dramaturg, a theater expert who provides literary and artistic advice throughout the production process and is the first audience of the performance, Choi observed Carmen with the sharpest eye from the closest vantage point. He said, "In this production, the roles of Carmen's ex-husband Garcia and her new love, the bullfighter Lucas, who are not in the original script, have been expanded. This contrasts with Don Jose and shows various male figures surrounding Carmen."

Writer Choi Yeo-jeong.
Photo by Choi Yeo-jeong.

In the play, Don Jose's fianc?e Micaela chooses to commit suicide, unlike in the original. Regarding this, Choi elaborated, "We wondered why this part was included, but ultimately understood it as a device to show that Micaela's way of love is also wrong. Killing Carmen because you cannot have her, like Don Jose, or risking your life because you lost love, like Micaela, both suggest misguided forms of love."

As a performance planner and publicity marketer who has written columns to make theater more accessible, Choi said that participating as a dramaturg made him love theater even more. When asked about the "crisis of theater," he replied, "OTT content is released daily, and tastes are becoming similar, but I believe everyone will eventually want to try something different. Theater is a genre with unique characteristics of live performance that nothing can replace, so it will not disappear easily."

Choi introduced the dramaturg as the first audience of every performance and said, "As an internal critic who mediates between creators and audiences, advising creators immersed in their artistic works about perspectives and understanding of the work or performance market, I will serve as a communication messenger conveying diverse opinions well to directors, actors, staff, and audiences alike."

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