Seagull Revived as Acoustic Music Drama
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
``The Seagull,'' an all-time classic drama, originally written by legendary Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, is to be presented as a music drama.
The drama will star musical stars Kim Sun-a, Kim Jin-tae, Choi In-cheon and Kim Na-jeong, under the directorship of Lee Jong-seok renowned for ``Five Course Love.''
The play deals with a story of unrequited love in the 19th century in which all the characters love someone who does not care for them. But this version will add modern elements to the work put in a 21st century setting, while keeping to the basic storyline.
The drama features the use of piano, violin and contrabass without any use of electronic sound effects.
The prologue and epilogue of the drama will be filled with the acoustic performances only. Some scenes will be expressed purely through music to portray the conflicts and emotions of the characters.
All the actors will be on stage for the entire duration of the drama.
The actors will sometimes merge with the audience and other times play the instruments or make sound effects.
``So far there have been no attempts to restage `The Seagull' with any aesthetic or modern twists because it is a classic. But this rendition will bring the old classic into the modern era, hoping that the story about diverse human characters and their dreams, frustrations and lack of communications is also the story of our own living today,'' the press release says.
To support the modern meaning, the director interpreted the lyrics into modern language and extended the human relations between the characters into a wider scope.
``The Seagull'' was written in 1895 as one of Anton Chekhov's four major plays. It focuses on the romantic and artistic conflict between four theatrical characters: the ingenue Nina, the fading leading lady Irina Arkadina, her son the experimental playwright Konstantin Treplyov, and the famous middlebrow story writer Trigorin.
The drama relies upon an ensemble cast of diverse, fully developed characters based on realism.
It will be staged at Naon Theater in Daehangno July 26-Aug. 31. Tickets cost from 20,000 for adults and 15,000 won for students.
For more information, call (02) 3675-3677.