Gulliverse
Seongbukdong Beedoolkee Theatre
- Director Kim Hyuntak
- Original Text Jonathan Swift
- Production Seongbukdong Beedoolkee Theatre
- Date 10.3.Thu. 4pm 10.4.Fri. 7:30pm 10.5.Sat. 4pm
-
Conversation with Artists
10.3.Thu. 4pm
After the performance, a conversation with the artist will take place. - Language Korean
-
Accessibility
10.3(Thu) 4pm Korean subtitle,
10.5(Sat) 4pm English subtitle
- Rating 7 and over
- Venue Daehakro Arts Theater-Main Hall
- Duration 70 min.
- Premiere 2022 Seongsu Art Hall, Seoul
- Tickets R 50,000won S 30,000won
Tragic portrait of today’s society made again through dismantlement and distortion of a classic
The classic Gulliver’s Travels and director Kim Hyuntak meet in this performance. Dismantling the original text audaciously and provocatively, the director makes a tragic portrait of our society.
IntroductionDirector Kim Hyuntak has firmly built his own artistic world with his experimental spirit provocatively and audaciously. He produced <Gulliverse> based on Jonathan Swift’s tale-like social satire Gulliver’s Travels with his extreme imagination, focusing on the novel’s first part: A voyage to Lilliput. In this performance, several young Gullivers face and collide with this world, as the vulnerable in society. Here, the director deals with different issues of today’s society by depicting the Gullivers who have fallen into the world inside their smartphone. The play won the 59th Dong-A Theater Awards in 2022 (category: best play).
SynopsisThe Gullivers fall asleep to ASMR and wake up to an annoying alarm. They watch a morning news interview and ballet video. They can’t live without their smartphone. They hurriedly go to work, play online games and invest in stocks. To survive in this world, these young people keep running and rowing their boat. Nevertheless, they are treated like useless parts of a machine in today’s society. But those of the older generation stay in their past glories and turn a blind eye to younger people who struggle to move forward.
Kim Hyuntak
"Kim Huntak, Korea’s Grotowski" - Patrice Pavis
Kim Hyuntak is the president and director of Seongbukdong Beedoolkee Theatre. He sharply criticizes
today’s society by dismantling and reconstituting Korean and international classics with his
provocative and pungent sensibility. Based on innovative and audacious directing, he pursues his own
aesthetics embodying his avant-garde experimental spirit. With his extreme imagination, he makes
ceaseless attempts to expand the potential of the theater.
His representative works include <MEDEA on Media > (2009), <Death of a Salesman> (2010),
<The Maids>
(2011), <OhTHEyeLLOw> (2016) and <A Study on the Directing and Acting Techniques of Bertolt
Brecht for Alienation Effect - Focusing on Covid-19> (2020). He is the winner of the Dong-A
Theater Awards (categories: best play, best young director and best play of a new concept)
and PAF prize for the best theater director.
Deviser·Director Kim Hyuntak
CastKim Mi Ok, Jang Jaeho, Kim Namhyun, Jeong Su Yeon, Kwag Young Hyun, Choi Minhyeok, Jeon Hyein, Yang Hye Sun, Kim Juho, Lee Dahye, Jeong Junhyuk
Reconstruction·Set Design·Props·Costume·Music Curation Kim Hyuntak
DramaturgPark Sonyoung
Lighting Designer Shin Dong Sun
Stage Management Ji Dae Hyun
Sound OperatorLee Kyoungmin
Lighting OperatorYang Hye Sun
Accessibility Manager Yun Sieun
Production Manager An Soobin
Subtitle Translation Kim Alyssa
The tendency of contemporary Korean theatre can be divided into two categories - theatre of representation which is faithful to the drama, and conceptual performance. But Seongbukdong Beedoolkee Theatre is just on the border between these two categories, therefore between theatre and outside of theatre. It continually experiments plays in various forms raising doubts about theatricality, while pursuing the spirit of the pure theatricality. In brief, it 'performs' the most extreme experimentation but within the boundary of 'theatre'. The company focuses on deconstructing and reconstructing classical texts and has notable productions include ‘Death of a Salesman’, ‘Medea on Media’ and ‘OhTHEyeLLOw’.
- “The play gives shape to the pain, despair and isolation arising from different problems in Korean
society in a three-dimensional way, through the performers’ bodies and movements
- Jury’s commentary at the 59th Dong-A Theater Awards (category: bets play) (2022) - “A sad fable of today’s young generation”
- Kim Okran, theater critic - “A stopover at Gulliver’s Travels and a landing in today’s world. The performance is full of wit
and brutality, satire and sorrow.”
- Nam Jisu, theater critic
