Changgeuk Lady Macbeth (창극 레이디 맥베스), National Gugak Center    

/ National Gugak Center/

This performance reconstructs the original play to centre on Lady Macbeth, who is suffering from the consciousness of guilt. The Doctor hypnotizes Lady Macbeth to face this overpowering guilt. Lady Macbeth is directed by Tae-sook Han, which has been continually performed since the 1998 premiere, was at this time recreated as a Pansori version. Pansori is a Korean traditional opera like Peking opera of China. Eun-hye Jung, a prima donna of Pansori, performed the role of Lady Macbeth. 

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Romeo and Juliet/ 로미오와 줄리엣, Asia Bridge Contents

/ Doosan Arts Centre/

This performance is a musical version of Romeo and Juliet, which is set in the devastated earth after nuclear war. The Capulets are humans surviving in the underground world, whereas the Montagues living on the ground are mutants by radiation exposure. They are fighting against each other in order to survive. However, Juliet and Romeo fall in love with each other when Juliet sneaks above ground because of her curiosity for the outer world. Finally, Juliet drinks a potion to become a mutant, and Romeo a potion to become a human. But this results in Juliet being killed by humans, and Romeo killed by mutants.

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Romeo and Juliet/ 로미오와 줄리엣, Sem Company 

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Keon-young Moon and Jung-min Park, two Korean movie and television stars, performed the title roles. Even though Director Jung-ung Yang is famous for adapting Shakespeare in his own way, this time he created a beautiful and fairy-tale-like tragic love story by following the original text comparatively closely. But there were differences: Friar Lawrence spoke the prologue and Nurse the epilogue. All of parents of two lovers were left out.

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The Comedy of Errors (실수연발), National Theater Company of Korea    

/ Myeong-dong Theater/
The Comedy of Errors (실수연발), National Theater Company of Korea    

This performance dramatized the comic elements of the original play very effectively. This production employed comical modern dresses and pictorial stage design reminiscent of Fernando Botero's paintings. Actors' and actresses' performances were swift, delightful, and sophisticated. 

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Pericles/페리클레스, Yohangza Theatre Company  

/ CJ Towol Theatre/
Pericles/페리클레스, Yohangza Theatre Company  

Director Jung-ung Yang emphasized the contemporaneity of the play with modern and cosmopolitan costumes, music and dances. The imagistic stage was very impressive, too. The 30m depth stage covered with 50t sand created the image of sea and island. The gigantic statue of Diana's head, which was laid down sideway on the stage left, expressed the precarious deity. The huge images of a compass and a moon, which were alternatively projected on the back screen of the stage, gave a proper background to Pericles, who wanders from place to place. Gower, who led the whole play as a narrator, was transformed into old Pericles.

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Hamick (함익), Seoul Metropolitan Theater    

/ Sejong Center for the Performing Arts/

Hamik is a female Hamlet. She is the only daughter of Maha business group and a professor who majored in Shakespearean tragedy in the UK. She suspects that her mother, who took her own life 20 years ago, was in fact killed by her father and step mother. When she directs Hamlet in her school, her real world is mixed up with that of the play.

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Hamlet (햄릿), Sinsi Company

/ Daloreum Theater/

Director Jin-chaek Sohn cast famous actors and actresses in their 60s and 70s for all roles. These legendary old players showed the essence of classical acting. When the backdrop was opened after Hamlet's death, it revealed that there was a real auditorium behind the backdrop, and that the present auditorium was part of the stage. All of the actors and actresses slowly exited toward the auditorium carrying the ritual vessels positioned at the front edge of the stage. This play was not only about Hamlet, but also a kind of farewell ritual for the great old actors and actresses approaching their exit time.  

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Song of the Beast (짐승가), Brecht Samuel Baguette   

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This is a performance where Hamlet is transported to a slaughterhouse in modern day South Korea. While it appears to be an ordinary slaughterhouse from the outside, it is in fact a perfectly controlled place, where powerful men butcher and execute their opponents. One day, the boss named Lee Sang-cheol is killed, and his son Lee Hae-in is trying to revenge his father's death. Painting a picture of extreme violence and wicked plans carried out by beast-like men, and one boy seeking an escape.
 

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