“No. No. No reason to live.”
As soon as the play begins, the main character ‘Inanna’ says something to herself. Rather than hope gradually fading, the story begins in the midst of complete despair.
Based on the narrative of the goddess Inanna's underground descent from ancient Sumerian mythology, the National Theater Company's play 'Retrograde', which weaves the lives of women who survived the harsh times of Korean modern and contemporary history, opened at the Myeongdong Arts Theater in Seoul on the 3rd.
It is a work by writer Kim Joo-hee, who won the grand prize at the National Theater Company's Original Play Competition, which resumed after 15 years in 2024, beating out 303 competing works. It begins with Inanna, who is trying to let go of her life, when her house collapses and she falls into the underworld.
There, Inanna meets forgotten and hurt family members.
The grandmother 'Pocket' with roots growing on her body, the older sister 'Pink' standing on all fours carrying a hammer, the 'Stone' becoming one with the stone, and the mother 'Eresh' waking up from the depths. The characters slowly unravel clues to their forgotten past while exchanging deep wounds with each other.
The stage direction that visualized Inanna's endless fall amidst the minimal stage setup stood out.
In fact, to overcome the physical limitation of the stage not collapsing below the floor, a method was chosen to lift and tilt the entire rough, dark textured floor plate into the air.
The floorboard floating in the air, the dark gap revealed beneath it, and the hole in the ceiling three-dimensionally showed that the protagonist was falling into an endlessly deep underground world.
However, the symbols piled up throughout the work may feel somewhat unfriendly to the audience.
In particular, the actors' unique body language is an element that makes the audience think actively and constantly.
The actors expressed the character's psychology and inner self by repeating the same movements while reciting lines or in silence.
This production, which introduced the 'Laban movement analysis method' that analyzes the way and reason for a character's behavior, gave the audience a primitive yet unfamiliar stimulus and made them think about the hidden meaning of movement.
Due to the long running time of 200 minutes, the somewhat heavy tempo, and the unfamiliar stage grammar, some responded that the play was difficult after the first act.
However, these difficulties are resolved as we enter the second act, where the relationships between characters are revealed in earnest.
The historical and social context contained in each character is also deep.
In an interview with Yonhap News before the performance, writer Kim Joo-hee said, "'Pocket' is about the generation that experienced the Japanese colonial period and the Korean War, 'Eresh' is about the generation that experienced inequality in industrialization and labor issues, 'Pink' is about women who had to work in gender-specific work, and 'Stone' is about children and the tragic war narrative. Inanna is a character whose concerns about the lives of individuals excluded in the near future where war heats up expand." explained.
Although the pile of symbols may feel heavy, the narratives of the women intended to be expressed through each character are clear.
At the end of the play, the scene where Inanna breaks up with the characters of the underworld provides a strange sense of liberation rather than a simple escape from despair.
Inanna, who was about to give up on life, is given a new driving force in life, and at the same time, the hope that she is never alone in this world is conveyed.
Even in separation, the feeling of solidarity that we will be with them forever remains deep in our hearts.
“Inanna took hold of me and began to write down many words. Reasons to live.”
Like this line spoken by the story's narrator, Seophan Dub, at the last moment, the play showed the journey of writing down the reason for living again from the bottom of the darkest despair.
