#theatre play
The play Camel Xiangzi is based on Lao She’s Rickshaw Boy, a novel that is considered a classic of 20th-century Chinese literature.
The protagonist is an orphan peasant who leaves for Beijing to earn a living. Xiangzi is a young, hardworking, well-built rickshaw puller who dreams of owning his own rickshaw. Just when he has earned enough to buy one, it is confiscated by warlord soldiers.
The harsh realities of life taught Xiangzi that decency and hard work have little meaning in this pragmatic, dog-eat-dog world. He becomes a lazy, degenerate and unscrupulous good-for-nothing, no different from those he looked down on early in his life, spending his days gambling, cheating and whoring.
WHEN: open run
WHERE: Daehangno Arts Theater Main Hall (17, Daehak-ro 10-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul) 대학로예술극장 대극장 (서울 종로구 대학로10길 17)
HOW MUCH: 40000KRW / R seat, 30000KRW / S seat, 20000KRW / A seat
HOW LONG: 100 mins
Daehak-ro Festival: YOU & IT The Musical
YOU & IT is an incredibly touching love story between a human and an AI. It reminded me of Steven Spielberg’s Artificial Intelligence, but with a romantic twist.
The musical opens with a devastated husband mourning his wife’s death. Drowning in his heartbreak, not knowing ho to continue on living, Gyujin receives a letter claiming that an AI robot can be created in the exact replica of his beloved Mina. He decided to take the chance and uploads Mina’s memories to the machine. AI robot does, indeed, look exactly like his late wife and even shows the same personality traits. Life picks up and the couple seems happy, but is the AI truly the same as his human Mina? What does it mean to love and can a machine have true feelings?
The musical is touching and raw. Halfway through the performance I noticed that I wasn’t the only one crying – the feelings of the main characters echoed through the audience and touched our hearts deeply. After the performance ended I saw a little girl crying in the bathroom of the theater, her mom was trying to console her, but the girl kept crying so hard, that her dad had to carry her put of the theater. I think moments like this are what the artists work for - to bring out our feelings, our thoughts, to make us relieve the character’s ups and downs as our own. Beautiful performance by a talented cast and wonderful job by the scriptwriter and director!
WHEN: Oct 2-6
WHERE: YES24 Stage Hall 2 (21, Daehak-ro 12-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul) 예스24스테이지 2관 (서울 종로구 대학로12길 21)
HOW MUCH: 50000KRW / R seat, 40000KRW / S seat
HOW LONG: 90 mins
Freedom. Freedom and Democracy. They are the things worth dying for. We must never, never stop resisting those who would take them from us. And when they have been taken we will fight until we get them back.
The act of resistance is our defining act as human beings. To say “No, I will not stand for that.” I will not colude, collaborate, negotiate, I will not compromise. To say to the enemies of freedom “You are wrong.” To resist, whatever the cost.
Handbagged, Moira Buffini
Ivor Novello as Sir Graham Rodney and Roma Beaumont as Melanie in the romantic musical ‘Perchance to Dream’ - cover of “Theatre Play”, April 1945
