theater

written and directed/  Kim Kwang Lim

choreograph/ Park Jun Mi 

music/ Won Il/ Kim Dong Kun /  5 musicians

set/ Jeon Hye Shin

12 actors

where and when

premiered at Korean National University of Art in 2007, and performed at National Theater of Seoul in 2007

synopsis

Hongdonggi: a red dissident!

Hongdonggi is adapted from kokdakaksi play, a Korean traditional puppet show. Hongdonggi’s strong and powerful gestures create a comical and simple character who wants to drink sul (rice wine), make love to girls and play. He escapes the court’s intrigues to live a simpler life in the mountain.  During the second half of the show he is off stage, pooping.   As in popular theatre, this is an event where actors and audience come together to parody debauched monks, corrupted officials, love triangles and bad politicians.  Hongdonggi Play also insinuates at a very recent Korean history: the blond hair monster comes to eat the sky, the earth, gasoline and the king. Hongdonggi means ‘simple’, and his character could represent ‘hope of the people’.  In Korean tradition the red man comes from nature as a protector against monsters and evil spirits.  At the imperial court, people use him for their desires.  Then he is dressed, educated in math and money, but he escapes the castle to return to nature. 

artistic statement

The folk stories by Kim Kwang Lim are a parable to modern Korean life. Kim Kwang Lim creates new myth out of old Korean stories. He is concerned about the world, sensitive especially to the effect of the capitalist civilization on human nature and nature itself. The play’s structure is different from that of a Western’s. It is not a linear story, but many episodes of life, such as traveling, war, love triangle, war again, funeral ceremony, child birth.  Kim Kwang Lim invites everyone to escape the capital and its luxury to go back to the mountains, like Hongdonggi, he yearns for a simpler life, “I don’t want shoes, I like bare feet”.

Reviews

“Unique theater giving freedom and a feeling of release with the pun of language, singing and mixture of puppet and human.” Yonhap News/ Hyun Yoon Kyung

“Throwing the message that life is always changing, despair becomes hope of life, the high

 ones become the low ones.”  Seoul Economics /Kang Dong Hyo

“ Live and attractive stage!” internet critiques

funding

Wuturi Players/ Ministry of Culture and Tourism / Art Council Korea

touring conditions

90 minutes without intermission.

23 people to tour

12 actors

5 musicians

1 director

1 light designer

1 make up designer

1 technical person

1 producer

1 technical assistant

the set consists of a temple made of blocks, 2 chairs, 8 puppets and a big funeral coffin. It is not heavy but quite voluminous.

For financial information please contact producer Kim Okjin at    jin42nd@paran.com