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.