Faust Goes on Stage
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Eimuntas Nekrosius, one of the most renowned theater directors in Lithuania, is coming to town to put a classical piece, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's ``Faust,'' on stage.
Nekrosius comes with ``Faust'' three years after the successful performances of ``Hamlet'' in 2000, ``Othello'' in 2002 and ``Macbeth'' in 2006 here.
A beloved director among Koreans for his Shakespearean pieces, he will show off the masterful German work, regarded as one of the toughest to perform because of its huge scale and abstruse interpretation of the original.
The tragic play portrays the human desires wandering through Faust, a scientific empiricist, who is forced to confront questions of good and evil, God, the devil, sexuality and morality.
The work is Goethe's lifetime masterpiece, consisting of two parts, and will run for four hours on stage.
Nekrosius is renowned for his directorship, using soothing background music of a repetitive pattern throughout the performance, extensive dance and movement, unique props, and elements as water, fire, wind, ice and stone.
The length of a single performance in his works often exceeds conventional viewing time, as Nekrosius tends to enjoy complex and challenging pieces.
In his expressive ``Faust,'' the sentences and metaphors of the original's dark masterwork will be turned into a truly unique theatrical experience.
His creative style explicitly testifies to the independent work of art created by the director, which not only reveals the entire spirit and power of the source material but also enables the audience to admire the expressiveness and emotionality of theatrical language once again.
The play will be performed by Meno Fortast, a Lithuanian theatrical troupe established by Nekrosius, in Lithuanian with Korean subtitles.
The running time is four hours including the two intermissions. The play will go on stage at LG Arts Center on April 3-5. Tickets cost 40,000 to 80,000 won.
For more information, call (02) 2005-0114 or visit www.lgart.com.