(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kwon Ji-hyeon = "People are falling, isn't it strange? No one stopped them, just..."
Closed-circuit (CC) TV footage of a man throwing himself from a shared office building. Even though the people in the video see the man attempting to jump, no one tries to stop him or catch him.
Directors and actors who saw a video that was so shocking wanted to turn it into a play. However, conflict and tension arise between the actors who were putting on an impromptu play, and before they know it, they end up ignoring and watching their colleagues' despair like the people in the CCTV footage.
The play 'Two Scenes', which was demonstrated at the Mapo Arts Center in Seoul on the 13th, attempted to raise questions about the passive view of other people's tragedies in Korean society, which has a high suicide rate.
The work is a commemorative new work jointly hosted by the Mapo Cultural Foundation and Mabangjin to mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of the theater studio Mabangjin. This is a new work directed by Go Seon-woong, who won numerous awards including the Dong-A Theater Award and the Baeksang Theater Award for 'Cho Orphan, Seed of Revenge' and 'The Sound of Tungso', presented with Mabangjin for the first time in four years.
'Two Gods Two Gods' took on a play-within-a-play structure and was set in the semi-basement practice room of Mabangjin, a drama studio. At the suggestion of director Oh Kwang-soo, eight actors, including Na Won-sam, and a music director will act out the situations seen on CCTV. However, as the performance progresses, the emotionally immersed actors become conflicted, and Na Won-sam, who explodes with disappointment towards his colleagues, finally declares that he will quit the play.
The play's play-within-a-play structure reminds us that the inhuman image seen on CCTV, ignoring the despair and tragedy of others, can also become our own. Na Won-sam and the actors criticize the people in the CCTV, saying, "How could they do that?", but they show indifference to Na Won-sam's complaints of pain.
This play-within-a-play structure causes the audience watching the play to ask themselves, “I criticize the characters in the play, but am I also indifferent to the tragedies of others?”
At the end of the play, in the scene where Na Won-sam falls, there is a scene where the actors actually call the actor's real name. As the boundary between theater and reality becomes blurred, the audience experiences being both an appreciator of the play, a witness to the event, and a bystander.
Director Ko Seon-woong, who met with reporters after the demonstration that day, explained, "The title 'Jumping to Death' refers to the man who jumped to his death on CCTV and the structure of a play within a play (two scenes). I tried to convey the meaning of 'the world is a stage and humans are actors.'"
Actor Won Kyeong-sik, who plays the role of Na Won-sam, laughed and said, "I acted without being completely myself or wearing a mask. At the end, when I got on the lift and played the falling scene, I felt like I was really falling, and when I came back up, I felt really grateful."
The play ends with Na Won-sam, who fell, coming back up to the sound of his colleagues calling for him and hugging them. Regarding this, Director Ko explained, "Originally, I was just going to close the curtain (without coming up), but my heart ached so much," and "I thought I had to save this person somehow."
"I'm not delivering a dogmatic message to the audience, but it's good to be alive and embrace it. If I were born before, I wish I could live until the end. Like the line in the play that says, 'You can untangle things that are tangled' (instead of dying)." (Directed by Go Seon-woong)
Seo Jeong-wan, CEO of Mabangjin, who plays Oh Kwang-soo in the play, said, “The director said, ‘We must save it,’ so while I was practicing, I sympathized with the director’s words, ‘I want people to live with mutual respect.’”
Another characteristic of this work is that it went through a co-creation process with the actors. It was created in a way that the actors improvise based on the given situation and role, and Director Go reconstitutes it.
Director Ko explained, "I followed the working method of director Kim Bong-woong, a Korean-Japanese director known as 'Guccidate,'" and added, "Once you create situations and characters, the actors creatively create actions and lines, come up with ideas, and work together."
Jo Hanna, who plays the role of actress Son Myung-hee in the play, said about co-creation, "Without the usual table work, the director moved and practiced with the actors right from the first day. It was an amazing experience."
He said, "I worked harder because I felt that the director trusted the actors and entrusted them with a lot of things, and I think the actors also became closer together."
The play 'To God to God', created by the production team and cast, will run from this day to the 22nd at Mapo Art Center Art Hall Mac.
