(459) Quite a Drama

By Andrei Lankov

Back in 1908 or 1909, visitors to downtown Seoul could hardly fail to notice a peculiar round building, not far away from Kwanghwamun. This was a large brick structure, rather ugly but still prominent in the cityscape of the era. To me, it was reminiscent of an industrial shed, but in fact it was a theater. Indeed, there are two institutions that can lay claim to being considered as the first theater in Korea, and both were housed in this building.

At first, it was a base for the Hyopryulsa; a royal theater which was founded in early 1902. However, by modern standards Hyopryulsa would not probably qualify as a “theater” since it did not stage plays. Its performances were largely music and dance shows, with kisaeng (high-class courtesans) employed as actresses. The p’ansori ballad tellers also frequently appeared on the Hyopryulsa stage.

The Hyopryulsa was closed down in 1906 when the Confucian moralists memorialized against such an improper institution. The building was converted into a club, and used for state-sponsored events and gatherings of officials. However, soon it was reborn as a theater.

The person who was largely responsible for the revival (or even birth) of Korean theater was Yi In-jik. In 1907 Yi In-jik was a powerful figure, since his connections with the Japanese were well established, and his devotion to Japan was proven.

Indeed, Yi In-jik was a pro-Japanese activist. Of course, a person’s inner motivations are difficult to judge, but it seems that he was a pro-Japanese of earlier mould, quite different to the opportunistic careerists of later eras. Until the 1910s many Koreans sincerely believed that Japan, being the only modern-style state in Asia, would help fellow Asians to modernize. Some of them even thought that colonial domination by Japan would be a lesser evil than control by some Western state. They were probably wrong, but, given the circumstances of 1900 or 1905, their illusions were easy to understand.

Yi In-jik was almost forty when, in 1900, he went to study to Japan. He graduated from a school in Tokyo and soon volunteered to join the Japanese army and fight against Russia. He acted as a translator and interpreter in Korea and, after the war, when country found itself under de-facto Japanese rule, he was appointed to edit some newspapers (needless to say, of the pro-Japanese kind).

When in Japan, Yi In-jik was struck by the then flourishing of new-style Japanese culture, which imitated Western genres and traditions. He penned some novels, which mixed the traditional conventions with new, Western, ones. Yi In-jik was also won over by the Japanese theater scene, largely dominated by Japanized versions of Western dramas. He decided to introduce this new artform to his native Korea as well.

With the growing Japanese influence, Yi In-jik acquired significant power, and he used it for his theater project. According to oral evidence, the idea to start a theater in Korea came from Ito Hirobumi who at the time was the Japanese Resident General. To most Koreans this outstanding Japanese reformer is evil incarnate, since he was indeed the major architect of Japanese colonial policy in the country. However, it seems that during a meeting in 1906 or 1907, it was Ito who suggested the opening of a modern-style theater. Yi In-jik was recommended as someone who could take charge of the project due to his connections in government circles.

Following Ito’s suggestion, in January 1908 the officials’ club was moved to another building, and the old brick structure, once used by the Hyopryulsa, was placed at Yi In-jik’s disposal. His new theater went under the name Wongaksa, and this was the other candidate for the title of “Korea’s first theater”.

Initially, Wongaksa, pretty much like its predecessor the Hyopryulsa, staged dance and p’ansori singing shows, but Yi In-jik wanted to start performing modern plays as well. We should not be surprised that his first choice was a play called Silver World, based on Yi In-jik’s own novel. Somewhat improbably, at this critical moment Yi In-jik himself left Korea and spent a long time in Japan studying new drama trends. The theater was left in the care of some other managers.

It is not clear, how ``Silver World’’ was actually performed. Most scholars believe that it was done in a kind of quasi-opera fashion which soon became known as ch’angg?k. It was a compromise between Western and Korean scenic conventions, a sort of p’ansori with many participants (in p’ansori the entire ballad is sung by one person who impersonates different characters one after the other). Some scholars believe that, in addition to the Japanese influence, the Chinese theatrical tradition also had some impact on the birth of this genre.

However, the history of Wongaksa was quite short. ‘Silver World’ fared badly, and by early 1910 Wongaksa acquired powerful competition, since many more theaters began to operate in the city. Wongaksa could not really compete, and had to be closed down after about one and half years after opening. Perhaps, Yi In-jik’s long and badly timed trip to Japan also contributed to its swift decline.

The strange round building in the downtown area did not last for long, being destroyed by a fire in 1914. Meanwhile, the “new wave” drama launched a theater boom in early colonial Seoul. However, it was still not quite Western drama, but rather a peculiar mix of genres and traditions.

Prof. Andrei Lankov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and now teaches at Kookmin University in Seoul.