Details

‘I am soheavy that I want to be the wind.’

Death, its anxiety and temptation, told by a human in absolutesolitude

About performance

Written by Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse in 2011, the playdelivers the themes of ‘eternal solitude’ and ‘unfathomable life’ most acutely, giving a dream-like portrayal of anxiety and desireabout death. The dialogue between two characters floating on the sea revealsFosse’s linguistic characteristics such as silence,repetition, pause, and hesitation, which leads to an understanding of thecharacters’ inner life not revealed on the surface.

A new production by Yurangseon for 2017, I am the wind ingrainsthe language of Fosse on the minimalistic stage. On the dream-like sea, we hearthe resonance of two people’s words, which graduallyexpands as if it merges with the sea. Seon-ho Song’sdirection which aims at ‘creating a time and space forreflection’ approaches, with minimal theatrical tools,the unrealistic world of Fosse, focusing on materializing the language. Throughthe performance, the intimate conversation of the two characters about death isshifted to live music about death.

Seon-ho Song, who first introduced Jon Fosse to Korea, presentshis latest play in about 10 years after Autumn Dream. The essence of the work,a more profound integration of his ideas, is achieved in a visually and aurallyvivid way.

Yurangseon, based on their outcome and experience of combininga new language of play-writing and video, aims to offer a new type ofexperience to the Korean theatre scene and audience, by experimenting the styleof minimalism and expression of musical language.

Synopsis

There are two men on a small boat. One man says that he hasalready left with the wind and is not here anymore. The boat sets sail, and thetwo men start to engage in a conversation about death. As the waves get rougherand fog thicker, one man jumps into the sea. Two men, standing on the boat. Thedead man says: “I’ve left,” “I am the wind.” When asked why he has left,he answers it was because he was too heavy.

Director’s notes

‘A fleeting dream’

The One, The Other. In an isolated place, two characters engagein a secretive conversation, continuously creating illusions. Coming out ofunidentified anxiety and desire, these illusions coexist with reality; it is aworld where the present overlaps with the past and future, and where death isinseparably a part of life.

The illusions they experience is similar to a short dream thatwe have – a fleeting dream that is so intense yetnever escapable. The 70-minute dream, which will approach us as a spiritualmystery and ultimately lead us to ontological reflection, is materialized bypictorial images that leave a strong mark to our eyes and ears, and by poeticlive music.

“The momentwhen an angel walks across the stage” – this is theessence of theatre to Fosse. In a way, the attempt to materialize the fleetingdream is not irrelevant to the approach to such essence.

Writer

Jon Fosse

Considered to be Norway’s bestplaywright since Ibsen, Jon Fosse was born in 1959 in Haugesund. He grew up inHaugesund and moved to Bergen in 1975, where he studied comparative literature.After his debut with novel Red, Black in 1983, he expanded his boundary topoetry, children’s literature and plays. With SomeoneIs Going To Come performed at Theatre des Amandiers in 1996 and The Name atSchaubühne in 2000, Fosse became one of the writers who receive the biggestattention in Europe. Portraying the world of ontological contemplation throughcalm yet musical language of Nynorsk, he has written many plays includingAutumn Dream, The Girl On The Sofa, Warm, I Am The Wind and These Eyes. Hisplays have been translated into more than 40 languages around the world. He isthe winner of Nynorsk Literature Award(1998), Ibsen Award(2010), European Prizefor Literature(2014), Nordic Council Literature Award(2015) and one of the mostmentioned candidates for Nobel Prize nominees.

Credit

Original by / Agota Kristof
Artistic Director / Jo-byeong Yoon

Dramaturg / Ock-ran Kim
Translator / Charlo Park
Light Design / In-gon Jo
Costume / Sang-hee Kim
Sound Design / Haesoo Eshu Jung
Sound Assistant / So-jeong Ahn
Cast / Suk-kyoung Mun, Soo-hyun Lee, Mi-jung Nam, Sun-ju Cho, Dok-hyun Yoo, Kyung-ho Kim, Hyung-ki Kim, Ji-hye Kim, Ju-Kwang Lee

Company

Yurangseon

Established in 2008 under the motto of ‘the soul’s waterwaytowards light – the implementation of a genuinelyinquiring spirit,’ Yurangseon has thrown fundamentalquestions on the significance of theatre as an art form in contemporarysociety. Keeping in mind the challenge to ‘draw out aform of performance that can concretely express the life and truth ofindividuals in society,’ Yuranseon has staged Koreanoriginal works such as You Don’t Understand and PostGeomgunjeon, and compelling international works that challenge us, includingJonas Hassen Khemiri’s Invasion and Erling Jepsen’s The Man Who Asked Permission to Stay on Earth. Recently, they arefocusing on new plays that clearly expose the problems of human existence.