‘That one does not know he is guilty is why he is guilty’

Absurd life in an absurd society…

Uncertainty of fading existence

Breaking off from thetraditional four step composition—introduction, development, turn, andconclusion—two directors collaborated to create a production borrowing the surrealimagery from the Franz Kafka’s original novel as a motif. Images of ourself-destruction from the restraints of self-imposed rules are embodied inevery scene by objet, the movement of body, and a condensed language of video. Distinctive perspectivesand unique expressive methods of Sadari MovementLab present confusion, the unrealistic space of fear, and the eerie situationsof the characters depicted in the original novel in a creative way. Various spaces such as an old tenement building, an eerieparty place, a court room, a storage, and a cathedral are turned intominimalistic installations, and as the movements of the refined chorus add up,the absurd time and space in close in on us as more dramatic..

Director’s Note

Lawand order, though created by humans to improve our own lives, is frequentlybroken by human greed. ‘Regulations and laws’ have developed till this day entangledwith all the restrictions of ethics, politics, economics, and religions of oursociety, and now turned into a broken mirror that threw us into chaos. Insteadof protecting the dignity of human life, regulations and laws have degeneratedinto a system that always monitors and accuses of crime, and have become corruptedand vested in the interest groups. Humans have locked ourselves in the law wehave created, but at the same time we find it as burdensome and seek to escape,thus falling into an absurd inconsistency. If social response is inevitable andunavoidable because it is programmed to respond immediately, I’d like to raise aquestion of how our human beings should exist to this society in which itcollapses by its system; and sues itself. Whether it is a problem we confronttoday or a reality we are in, this suit implies a resistance against the factthat we have obediently given up our independent lives. Accordingly I’d like tosue our conscience and realize our current state by asking the society a seriesof in-depth questions of; what are we seeing in the present age? Where do westand now? This play reflects on both you and me, both of whom have been restrictedby law. That is, humans regularly and voluntarily set laws and rules,destroying ourselves regardless of rank or position. The first question I’d liketo ask is, "For whom do the laws exist?" The second question is, "Wheredo humans stand now, as fragile beings in reality?" How can we measure theabsurdity caused by law?

-Do-wan Im, Soo-yeon Lee

Company

Sadari Movement Lab

Sinceits establishment in 1998, the Sadari Movement Lab has been recognized for itsefforts at producing strong methods and excellent performances. Now it has establisheditself as a renowned theatre troupe and actively stages a wide range of plays.The company’s works often express humanity’s intrinsic passions through nature’sinherent dynamics, including elements and materials, colors and light, animalsand music. Across its repertoire, Sadari has used physical movements, audioobjects, installation works, masks, stage devices, costumes, puppets and imagesto create a unique stage language of its own. The company utilizes new mediaand scientific effect, too, and has applied metonymy to turn a mere script intoa flying theatre language, creating an even more progressive andfuture-oriented performance.

Credits

Originalby      Franz Kafka
Adaptedby      Creativeteam, in collaboration
Director          Do-wan Im, Soo-yeon Lee
Assistant Director  Je-young Park
Producer         A-ri Lee, Min-kyeong Park
Video            Jai-jin Chung
Lighting          Hyun-ju Kwak
Sound            Yo-chan Kim
Stage Manager       Seung-woo Lee,
Stage Crew       Myung-jun Lee, Han-yeol Lee, Hee-se Kang, Jae-min Choi, Soo-hyun Kwon
Lighting Operator    Shin-hye Park
Sound Operator    Ju-hee Kim
Video Operator    Se-in Yoon
Staff          Ji-su Park, Hye-yeon You
Cast          Ho-chul Lee, Mee-ryeongKim, Eun-ju Lee, Eun-jeong Noh, Sung-won Jang, Bon-hyuk Koo, Chang-seok Kim,Jae-seong Park, Da-hye Kim, Jin-joo Im, Hee Jung