| Thursday, August 10, 2006 |
| "Subway Line 1", a critique of Korean society |
Watched the Korean music 지하철1호선, or Subway Line 1, at the Hakchon Green Theater in Daehangro, Seoul last night. Daehangro is the theatre district of Seoul (and if you're interested, has a huge Filipino market every Sunday afternoon).
"Subway Line 1" follows the quest of a Chinese gyopo called Angel, a Korean girl who has been raised in China.
She comes to Seoul for the first time in order to search for a man who came to China and got her pregnant. (The play makes frequent allusions to the Korean folk tale of the woodcutter and the angel.)
Angel sees everything in Seoul with the eyes of an outsider, and as you can tell from the title, the play focuses on the hub of Seoul culture, the SUBWAY.
Because road traffic in Seoul is so bad, everyone in Seoul has to take the subway system at one point or another, whether they like it or not. The play satirizes a wide variety of characters, teenaged schoolchildren, alcoholics, the homeless, army guys, harried mothers, uncontrolled children, desperate housewives..
My particular favorites were the ancient grandmother who launched a 15 minute exposition on healthy poop (this aspect of Korean culture is so true!!), and the group of old, rich widowed ajummahs who were forced to take the subway instead of their usual taxi to catch the latest big department store sale:
(^^ these are all men dressed up as women, by the way)
The ubiquitous pojangmatchas, street carts which sell foods like ddukbokki and soondae.
Act one is hilarious, and act two ends on a tragic but thought-provoking note.
Won't say who dies.. go see for yourself!
By the way, if you're American, you'll find the American parody of the news program in Act 2 pretty interesting ;)Labels: Events and Performances |
posted by Jane @ 2:56 AM   |
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