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THE CHORUS; OEDIPUS Based on Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Directed by Jae-Hyung Seo; Script and Lyrics by Areum Han
Music composed by Uzong Choe
Produced by LG Arts Center and Theater Company Juk-Dal
FREE PROGRAMME POST-SHOW TALK
FRIDAY 18 MARCH
Image Credit: JD Woo and Tuckys Photography
WITH SUPPORT FROM:
Asia NZ Foundation
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THE CHORUS; OEDIPUS
Q THEATRE RANGATIRA THURSDAY 17 – FRIDAY 18 MARCH, 7:30 PM
SATURDAY 19 MARCH, 3:00 PM & 7:30 PM
SUNDAY 20 MARCH, 5:00 PM
1HOUR 35 MINUTES WITH NO INTERVAL
In this highly original adaptation of Sophocles’ classic Oedipus Rex, The
Chorus; Oedipus presents a riveting mix of music, dance and drama,
reinventing this gripping Greek tragedy into sensational music theatre.
The plot of The Chorus; Oedipus follows that of the original myth written more
than 2,500 years ago. Oedipus, the reigning young King of Thebes, vows to
find the murderer of his predecessor King Laius. However, Oedipus has
married Laius’ former queen, Jocasta, and fathered several children with her.
There is now a fatal plague in the city - the gods are displeased. Jocasta
pleads with Oedipus to leave the past alone, but he insists on pursuing it.
There is no escaping destiny, and catastrophe unfolds.
Seamlessly weaving a minimalist set with the musical compositions of Uzong
Choe and the poetic lyrics of playwright Areum Han, The Chorus; Oedipus is
testament to a growing movement in Korea which infuses classical Greek
texts with contemporary elements. First produced by LG Arts Center and
Theater Company Juk-Dal, The Chorus; Oedipus was performed to sell-out
crowds in Seoul. It is set to thrill audiences here with its raw energy and
powerful acting.
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CREDITS
CREATIVE TEAM
Director Jae-Hyung Seo
Playwright Areum Han
Composer Uzong Choe
Choreographer Eun-Jung Jang
Stage & Lighting Designer Jae-Hyung Seo
Costume Designer Ji Yeon Kim
Producer Tency Hyun-Jung Lee
Production Manager Jean Kim
Stage Director Seong Hwan Hwang
Sound Designer Bum Hun Lee
Stage Technicians Hee Jin Kim, Sang Woo Lee
Lighting Technicians Jung Ju Yoon, Bo Kyung Lee
Stage Manager Dong Kyun Kim
Wardrobe/Make-Up Seul Ki Hwang
CAST
Oedipus Yoon Ho Nam
Chorus Leader Inn Bae Pak
Jocasta, Chorus Kang Hee Yim
Creon, Chorus Kap Seon Lee
Laius, Chorus Sun Pyo Kim
Shepherd, Chorus Jung Yoon Kim
Tiresias, Chorus, Piano Ji Hee Park
Chorus Chan Woo Oh, Bohyun Kim,
Cheon Young Lee,
Jae Hyung Kim, Jin Woo In, Suk Min Ji,
Oh Hyun Kwon
Chorus, Piano Hye In Kim
Piano Chan Mi Kim
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First performed in April 2011 at LG Arts Center, Korea
Produced by LG Arts Center and Theater Company Juk-Dal
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BIOGRAPHIES
DIRECTOR – JAE-HYUNG SEO made his debut on the theatrical
scene as the director of dance for a play, Hyacinth Hyacinth.
Since then, Seo has built his capacities as a versatile director
through various plays, musicals, dances, and opera. In
collaboration with playwright Areum Han, Seo has developed
his own distinctive style of “active image play”, featuring
unconventional forms and experimental languages. In 2004, he
directed the play Dying Run and founded the theatre
company named after the play. In 2005, he won a Dong-A
Theatre Award for Play with Best New Concept and received a
2009 Young Artist Award from the Korean Ministry of Culture.
PLAYWRIGHT – AREUM HAN is regarded as one of the most
versatile playwrights on the Korean theatrical scene. Dying Run,
her first work with director Jae-Hyung Seo, was particularly
sensational in Korea; since then, Han, with Seo, has consistently
developed the distinctive style of “active image play” in her
plays including Youth, 18:1. Mostly staged by Seo, her works
became very popular among young audiences, with their
touching dialogue and heartfelt as well as unconventional plots.
In 2011, Han received a Korea Musical Award for Best Script for
her script of the musical Hero. The Chorus; Oedipus prominently features Han’s modernistic interpretation of a classic in the form
of musical theatre.
COMPOSER – UZONG CHOE studied Composition and Music
Theory at Seoul National University, the Mozarteum in Salzburg,
and Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris. His
works encompass a wide variety of musical styles and aesthetic
standpoints, from early music to musical comedy. His recent
works particularly reflect his research into European polyphony,
Korean traditional music, and musical theatre. Main works
include instrumental music San, Air, 12 Preludes for Piano, and
musical theatre pieces Rose, Francisca and The Chorus;
Oedipus.
CHOREOGRAPHER – EUN-JUNG JANG reached the summit of
her career as a dancer by winning the Best Dancer Prize at the
Concours Choregraphique International de Bagnolet in 1994.
She has choreographed various works, including Non-Existence,
Relation, Whale is... Camel, and Howdy, Hope you well, which
closely reflect her contemplation of humanity and her
investigation of human relationships. In 2012, she won the Dong-
A Play Award for Best Sceneography for her choreographic
work in a musical theatre piece, The Chorus; Oedipus.
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PRODUCER – TENCY HYUN-JUNG LEE has played a key role in making the LG Arts
Center one of the major performing arts organisations in Seoul since joining the
organization in 1996. Lee has produced and supervised LG Arts Center’s more
than 20 global and future-oriented season programmes - known as CoMPAS, or
Contemporary Music and Performing Arts Season - every year to challenge and
inspire both audiences and artists with a variety of adventurous artistic
experiences. She has led several international collaboration programmes,
including Pina Bausch Wuppertal Tanztheater’s Rough Cut in 2005 and Pierre
Rigal’s Theater of Operations in 2012, which toured 10 cities in France and
Switzerland after premiering at LG Arts Center. She has also produced many
internationally-acclaimed Korean productions, including Peer Gynt by Jung-ung
Yang, Lee Ja-Ram’s Pansori Project Ukchuk-ga, and The Chorus; Oedipus by Jae-
Hyung Seo
OEDIPUS – YOON HO NAM is a budding actor in the
Korean theatre scene. He was trained at Royal Holloway
College, University of London BA Media Arts and took
MFA with Acting at UCLA. He made his debut with Killing
the Romanticist in 2012. He performed the main
characters in the plays such as Equus, Pericles, Romeo
and Juliet. He has appeared on film My Dictator and The
Big Match.
CHORUS LEADER – INN BAE PAK trained at Seoul Institute of the Arts as an actor and after his graduation he
started to study opera. He made his debut with opera Il
Barbiere di Siviglia in 2006. His professional credits include
plays Lend me a Tenor, Othello, and Entertaining Mr.
Sloane, and musicals Rebecca, Next to Normal, Assassins,
Man of La Mancha, She Love Me, Sherlock Homes,
Spamalot, Turando, Singin' in the Rain, Jekyll and Hyde,
and Chance in Korea.
JOCASTA, CHORUS – KANG HEE YIM studied vocal music
at Kyung Hee University in Seoul. Since graduating she
worked as a musical actor. She had her debut with
musical Werther in 2004. YIM’s musical credits include
Marie Antoinette, Mozart, Indang's Blues, Tomorrow
Morning, Mirror Princess Pyeonggang, Black Mary Poppins,
Finding Mr. Destiny, Namhan Castle, Royal Dream of the
Moon, My Heart's Organ, Dalgona, Evil Dead, and
Romeo & Juliet.
CREON, CHORUS – KAPSEON LEE has been around as an
actor in the Korean theatre and film scene. He made his
debut with The Shower by Korean famous novelist Soon
Won Whang. He took an important role on King Lear, The
devotion of suspect X, Antigone, and The Kitchen. He is
active in film and TV drama industry, appeared on film
Missing You, Our Town, Seducing Mr. Perfect, The Fox
Family and The Coast Guard.
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Material in this programme was provided courtesy of LG Arts Center
and Singapore International Festival of Arts.
Sun Pyo Kim
Laius, Chorus
Jung Yoon Kim
Shepherd,
Chorus
Ji Hee Park
Tiresias, Chorus,
Piano
Chan Woo Oh
Chorus
Bo Hyun Kim
Chorus
Cheon Young Lee
Chorus
Jae Hyung Kim
Chorus Jin Woo In
Chorus
Suk Min Ji
Chorus
Oh Hyun Kwon
Chorus
Hye In Kim
Chorus, Piano Chan Mi Kim
Piano
THE CHORUS
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INTERVIEW WITH JAE-HYUNG SEO
Q: What attracted you to Greek tragedy?
I believe I am naturally inclined to plots with high intensity. Sometimes it gets
on my nerves when I see a play and nothing is at stake. As a matter of fact, it
is almost fateful that I chose the plot of Oedipus Rex to begin with, because
The Oedipus is perhaps the inception of all tragedies. I usually launch a pro-
ject after much deliberation on whether or not I can grasp and express the
thematic nature of the play. Even though the nature of a classical work
seems a bit different from what I’ve directed so far, I came to think that I
could accept the new challenge of recreating the classical work based on
primitive questions and universal themes.
Q: Tell us a little about The Chorus in this play.
I felt a strong impulse that I should make the chorus stand out in this play. In
the initial phase, I came to envision the Greek play of 2,500 years ago; that
imagination became the inspiration for the directing choices in The Chorus;
Oedipus. I decided to incorporate the main characters, singers, dancers, and
even the visual and sound effects into the chorus. As shown in the title of the
play, The Chorus; Oedipus, the chorus is treated almost equally as the central
figure in the play. I hope to offer the audience a pleasant experience
through the recreation, if not the perfect restoration, of the Greek chorus.
Q: What was it like to collaborate with composer Uzong Choe?
When I work with a composer, I tend to talk a lot about the storyline and the
sentiment of a play. Depending on the play, I may participate in the revising
process or may leave everything to the composer. Since Oedipus presents a
complex and intense emotion, I hoped that a composer well aware of the
play would be in charge of its music. In that sense, the musical character of
Mr. Choe perfectly blends into the play: I am convinced no other composer’s
work would have matched Oedipus better than his work. Mr. Choe and I also
talked about how we were able to see ways and possibilities of approaching
the new style of musical theatre through working on Oedipus.
Q: Your works have focused very much on the delicately-choreographed move-
ment of your actors. What are you bringing to this production in that regard?
I was most concerned with presenting and stressing the feet of the artists.
“Oedipus” in Greek translates to swollen foot,” and the tragedy begins with
the story of how his feet get tied and swollen. Oedipus’ feet will lead his way
to - and away from - Thebes, and I believe Oedipus leaving Thebes on his
feet signifies the focal point of human will. As I identified the feet with Oedi-
pus and with the human will, I talked a lot with the actor playing Oedipus,
about creating the consistent concept of feet throughout the play.
Interview conducted by LG Arts Center in October 2013.
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