Subscribe
E-Paper
.jpg/dims/resize/740/optimize) |
| From top, Kim Su-yong playing Woyzeck, Kim So-hyang (Marie) and Kim Pub-lae (Drum Major) / Courtesy of Acom International and LG Arts Center |
Musical rendition of ‘Woyzeck' to open in October
.jpg/dims/resize/120/optimize) |
| Chris Broderick |
"Woyzeck," an unfinished stage play written by German author Georg Buchner, will get a new adaptation at Seoul's LG Arts Center in October.
Regarded as the first modern play, the "Woyzeck" explores social conditions such as poverty and experiments and how it tests the human limits. The 1837 play has been adapted for many movies, operas and plays and even choreographed for ballet, but no commercial producers thought of transforming it into a musical yet.
Despite the dark subject matter, Yun Ho-jin, producer and director of prominent Korean musicals "The Last Empress" and "Hero," found the possibility of musical adaptation in the gruesome tale of the soldier Woyzeck. Yun brought his two previous shows onto the stage of prestigious Lincoln Center in New York, but this time he wanted to stage something more universal and the story of "Woyzeck" captivated his heart.
"I've first seen 'Woyzeck' by a German troupe in the 1970s and I still remember each scene. I thought translating the desperation into music would be more effective," Yun said.
Yun embarked on to find the right composer for the production and the producers of the Greenwich theatre in London was interested in the project in 2007. They held a contest for music for "Woyzeck" and found Chris Broderick of British folk band Singing Loins, who wrote the book, lyrics and music, and Rob Shepherd who later joined the band, who also composed music. Yun was looking for something different, more intimate, an authentic feeling for the subject matter and their music struck the right chord.
"My background is very much working class _ my dad was a truck driver and I left school without qualifications at 16. I identified immediately with a man striving to do his best, but remaining unheard," Broderick said at an e-mail interview with The Korea Times.
He started the folk band Singing Loins with Chris Allen in 1990 and slowly earned a cult following in Britain and Europe through their acoustic music. Broderick had an urge to try writing a musical in 2000 and wrote a story based on "Punch & Judy," a traditional English rebellious puppet character, with Shepherd and won a competition for new musical theatre writers hosted by the Greenwich Theatre.
Broderick instinctively knew the traditional approach of musical theater looking down on the scene and liberally sprinkling it with cheesy song and dance would not work with the subject matter of "Woyzeck," which follows the deep insight of a lowly soldier who goes through extreme medical experiment and suffers jealousy.
"The songs are simple, organic, raw and naked. The songs are the very breath of the characters. They rise from the warm earth of the village or ricochet from the chill walls of the military," he said. "I believe musical theatre audiences are intelligent enough to accept the extremes of human behavior as driving forces of characters and recognize a little bit of it in themselves, or people they know. I have sweetened the bitter pill of Buchner's story with just enough comedy and melody. I hope we have succeeded in illuminating the beauty in dark places and that the audience will trust us on this cathartic journey."
They interpreted Woyzeck, a soldier who participates in a medical experiment of eating nothing but peas to earn money, as the embodiment of folk music.
"(Woyzeck's songs are) songs from the people, for the people. (It conveys) a naive innocence rising to powerless rage," Broderick explained.
Woyzeck's lover Marie, who grows tired of Woyzeck and poverty and gets seduced by the Drum Major, "has been brought up submerged in the same folky roots, but has a penchant for glitter."
The Captain, the Drum Major and the Doctor are interpreted as a symbol of oppression, with a more metropolitan instrumentation. "Individually, the Captain is a bundle of insecure jealousy, absurd and pathetic one minute, psychotic and cold blooded the next. The Drum Major is a narcissist who was bullied by his father, but seems unable to break the cycle. The Doctor will stop at nothing to achieve his ambition," he said.
The musical was developed through a reading and a workshop at London's Charing Cross Theatre in 2012, restructuring the script and adding new music, before arriving in Korea for its premiere.
Jang So-young, music director of the show, is busy arranging the music for the upcoming production, saying Broderick and Shepherd's music has sensibility of rawness.
"They had not received formal musical education, but they portrayed the emotions of the characters in simple music. I am trying to arrange the music in an acoustic way, maximizing the charm of it," Jang said.
Broderick and Shepherd will visit Korea for the opening night of the show. "I've heard a lot about the sophistication and open mindedness of Korean audiences. I hope you enjoy a roller coaster ride of laughs, tears and goose-bumps," Broderick said.
After premiering in Korea, the musical rendition of "Woyzeck" is eyeing for heading to the United Kingdom or Germany.
The musical "Woyzeck" will run from Oct. 9 to Nov. 8 at LG Arts Center. In the Korean production of the musical, Kim Su-yong and Kim Da-hyun alternate the role of Woyzeck; Kim So-hyang, also known as Sophie Kim, plays Marie and Kim Pub-lae plays the Drum Major. Tickets cost from 40,000 to 80,000 won. For more information, visit www.lgart.com or call (02) 2005-0114.
