Details 

Thebes and Seoul, the encounter between Greek tragedy from the 5^th century BC and our society in 2018

About performance

Theatre Company Nolddang’s , a modern reinterpretation of Greek tragedies, talks about the conflict between the desire to turn away from pain and the will to find out the truth. Comparing Korea’s Sewol Ferry disaster from a few years ago and Greek tragedies, what it brings to the present is Oedipus’ search for truth and heartfelt mourning of Antigone in order to ask what we’ve lost and what we need. The messages of Sophocles from the 5^th century BC will take new meanings in 2018 Korea and get delivered to the audience.

We can say the way our society remembers our history is to erase our pain fast and start anew for prosperity. The memorial monument for Sampoong Department Store disaster, which should be in Gangnam, is neglected in a park in Yangjae instead, and ‘Classroom of Memory’ in Danwon High School has transferred to the Office of Education, separate from the very school affected by the Sewol Ferry disaster. This may not be only due to the politicians’ incitement but from our desire to turn away from pain. How can you keep the will to remember history? Looking into where we are today, the piece tries to think about what keeps our society from respecting death and what kinds of choices we are making as individuals.

Synopsis

The city is covered by death. The people of the city look for Oedipus to save their city from death, but Oedipus has become a blind beggar, wandering the city homeless. The people ask him for the answer to deal with this chaos, but Oedipus asks them back – whether they are prepared to lose everything they’ve got.
Noticing that the citizens do not want to lose anything but to acquire, Politician Creon campaigns for prosperity, earning wide support. Gradually the truth of death is neglected. But a group of citizens starts to protest that they need to search for the truth even if the pain of death should stay next to them.
What will save this city from death?
This is a site-specific piece. Without separating the stage and audience, the whole space of given venue will be a space of theatre. The audience, intermingled with the actors, take part in this piece as Seoul citizens and witness the debate, ultimately having to express their opinions.

Credit

Director / Zin-a Choi

Stage Design / Sang-bong Park

Lighting Design / Sung-gu Kim

Costume / Eun-jung Park

Sound/Composition / Chang-hoon Lee

Choreographer / Eun-sook Yang

Video / Min-chul Yun

Assistant Director / Eunue kim, Byung-hee Park

Operator / Hye-su Heo , Kang-hyun Choi

Cast / Yong-jun Kim, Jun-young Lee, Su-hyun Nam, Sun-mi Kim, Chi-hun Song, Jung Kim, Hye-lin Ryu

About company

Theatre Company Nolddang was established in September 2004 through a workshop “Not about Relationships”, led by writer/director Zin-a Choi. With their sensitivity toward the mundane and their observation on the generation, Nolddang reveals what is hidden and suggests another point of view. It is continuously exploring theatre with the hope that theatre would be a subtle and unique experience to the audience.