By Chung Ah-young
Myeongdong Theater, the self-proclaimed “play-oriented theater,” has invited a foreign director for the first time to stage Goethe’s “Urfaust” next month.
After considering a long-term collaboration with overseas thespians, the theater has been working to stage the time-honored classic since reopening in 2009.
The playhouse searched for a proper director for the show by asking the Goethe Institute to recommend 50 German directors. David Bosch, the youngest among the candidates, was selected and has collaborated with Korean actors and staff in Seoul to prepare for the performance.
“It is meaningful that Bosch will reinterpret the work for the first time with Korean actors and creative staff,” the theater said in a statement.
The theater said that the reason it decided to work with Bosch, an up and coming creative German director is that he has a strong presence on stage, communicating well with a young audience. This is an important quality since the genre tends to be viewed as boring and difficult by youngsters.
Bosch has directed the theatrical classics “Romeo and Juliet,” “Voyzech” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” but made them into interactive and innovative works, attracting a younger audience to the theater. The 33-year-old director has a special talent for combining a classic storyline with dynamic theatrical imagination, according to the theater.
“Urfaust” is an early version of Goethe’s masterpiece “Faust.” The play seems to be incomplete in clarity and connection between dramatic incidents, but its basic framework is solid. The earlier work has a more simple structure compared to “Faust,” which presents sometimes hard-to-grasp, abstruse, philosophical content in enormous volumes.
For that reason, “Urfaust” leaves more room for the young director to interpret the work based on his imagination, combining diverse approaches and spectrums. He puts more historical significance and personality in the characters as well as focuses on the relationships between the characters.
Bosch will collaborate with Falko Herold, the world-renowned stage and costume designer. He cast Korean actors following auditions in March. Veteran actor Jung Bo-suk, who is active in various television soap operas and stage productions, will play Faust.
“Urfaust” will be staged from Sept. 3 to Oct. 3 at Myeongdong Theater. For more information, call (02) 727-0929 or 1644-2003 or visit www.mdtheater.or.kr