Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.
'Magnet' portrays loneliness of modern life
A scene from the play “Our Bad Magnet,” which is on stage at Art One Theater in Daehangno, central Seoul. The play revolves around four friends, from left, Paul, Gordon, Alan and Fraser. / Courtesy of Aga Compan
By Kwon Mee-yoo
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Douglas Maxwell’s play “Our Bad Magnet,” is one of the hottest plays in Daehangno, Korea’s small theater cluster in central Seoul, this winter. Currently at Art One Theater it is attracting full houses most days.
It revolves around four boys — Fraser, Paul, Alan and Gordon, more frequently called Giggles. They first met when they were 9 and form a rock band when they are 19. When they are 29, three of them gather for a reunion to tie up the details of what happened to Gordon 10 years earlier.
The play portrays the boys as they grow up and the loneliness of modern people as they push each other away like magnets of the same polarity. The title of the piece comes from the story about Gordon.
It premiered in Korea in 2005 and was staged three times between 2007 and 2009. However, these were adapted locally and the names and settings were changed to Korea. This year’s version chose to stick to the original setting of a small coastal town in Scotland.
Choo Min-joo, well-known for long-running musical “Laundry,” directed this version. “I was fascinated by the friendship of the 19-year-old boys when I first saw this play,” she said.
She wrote a new prologue of the four playing the rock song “Tulip” and added a detailed description of the time capsule the boys buried when they were 9. “They put a molar, a toy fire engine, a dog collar and a story in the time capsule and I tried to add meaning to each of them,” the director said.
To emphasize the musical characteristics of the play, this version chose to add new songs. It starts with the four performing a rock number as a band and ends with a song from Gordon’s fairy tale. Combined with the sentimental atmosphere of the play, the music evokes the memories of the four boys.
Composer Cho Yoon-seung, who wrote the music for hit dramas “Queen Seondeok” and “White Tower,” has created a score portraying the sensibility of 9-, 19- and 29-year-old males and Won Mi-sol, the music director of “Doctor Zhivago” and “Jekyll and Hyde” is the musical supervisor.
Jang Hyun-duck and Song Yong-jin play the keen Gordon; Jung Moon-sung and Lee Dong-ha play band leader Fraser; Hong Woo-jin and Kim Dae-hyun play Paul; and Kim Bo-gang and Lee Gyu-hyung play Alan.
“Our Bad Magnet” runs through Jan. 27. Tickets cost 35,000 and 50,000 won. For more information, call 1566-7527.