Gwangju of 1980 Reborn in A Bride of May
The hall of Gwangju Culture and Art Center, where A Bride of May was being performed on stage in celebration of the 25th anniversary of May 18 Uprising, was filled with feverish excitement, to the extent that the audience were deafened by thunderous applause. After the musical drama, organized and produced by our university, came to an end, the history brought to our remembrance and our emotional intensity overwhelmed the house. It gave the audience a chance to experience the historical incidents and to expose themselves to the oppressed memories and emotional feelings, and then the tragic history gave way to catharsis.
The play is set in Gwangju and its opening and ending are from a current day perspective. The narrator is a Catholic priest, reflecting on events that occurred many years prior. The chief priest at Gwangcheon-dong Catholic Church is suffering from a guilty conscience for surviving the massacre and Heo In-ho, a madman who used to be a social activist, is wandering around the Provincial Hall. The priest hides himself behind his long, black costume and his pledge of silence, while the naked Heo In-ho is muttering some words to himself incessantly for the repose of the deceased.
It is interesting that the drama, written by Hwang Ji-woo, is narrated by the silenced priest. Thus, it may be paradoxically read as the words, deep sighs or screams shifted out of the silenced. Lee Yun-taek, a director, employed the most effective method to dramatize this dilemma. He directed the priest to stand in front of the stage, with the script projected onto a screen hung down above the shape of the Provincial Hall. The dramatic device works as a narrator instead of the non-speaking priest who is standing still without saying anything. The unspeakable things can be represented by the words.
While the perspectives of the present are presented as depressive and gloomy, the Gwangju of 1980 is represented as the City of Light inspired with hope. The triangle of Oh Min-jeong, Kim Hyeon-sik, and Kang Hyeok contributes to form dramatic tension through the multilayered conflicts between love and hate among the leaders of the uprising. It is parallel to another triangle, the love story of Hye-suk, a student and laborer at night school. The triangles are interwoven and represented as being typical of those days. As they are involved in the uprising, the two groups of university students and night school students are destined to encounter. They are disturbed by the differences of social position and get in trouble with each other for a while, and then sympathize with each other and are in league. The greatest scene, I may say, is where Hyeon-sik and Min-jeong celebrate a wedding with a wedding veil made of a curtain on her head. The wedding scene is a symbol of victory. Kim So-hee played Min-jeong in the drama remarkably enthusiastically and beautifully.
Director Lee combines the power of poetic language and audio-visual effects and thereby the play is seasoned with modern spices of high technology in this musical drama by means of typography. The projection of script with letters of a variety of sizes and arrangement gives rise to visual tension, corresponding with the speech of the actors. About 20 songs including To the City of Light and Like a Rock and the sound effects are by the group James. The chorus’ reciting of poems and the group dances to the songs express the disturbance and anguish of the citizens.
There remains something to be desired. The screen is relatively small considering the size of the theater; readability of the typography is quite low; the music of the ballad is not energetic enough for the explosive potentiality of the drama; the setting and lighting effects aren’t in time with the players' movements and; the conflicts among the individuals and the chorus of Gwangju citizens aren’t organically linked together. However, these are just side issues, as the musical drama is highly acclaimed as an unparalleled success.
Considering that the May 18 Uprising is dramatized only in the form of anniversary events and the events are shrunken in scale and number, it is improper to assert that we should turn May 18 Uprising into a current issue by inquiring the significance of it to the present. However, we should take the historical sense in our mind authentically and consistently, and inherit the spiritual assets for the future. In spite of the minimum production cost and tight schedule, the Street Theater Troupe which performed A Bride of May turns these disadvantages into a chance to realize the economy of scale. This can be a starting point to open a new chapter, the spirits of May 18 will be reborn in a festive space and we can stir up new hope, taking away the heavy burden of history.
[#265, 266 Review]