Kim Hyuntak

I always saw Kim Hyuntak as the Korean Grotowski, the Grotowski of origins. For the wrong reasons, no doubt: an insalubrious cellar for a theatre; a radicalism in using classics more as material than as story; the apparent gratuitousness of the stage actions; the urgency and hysteria of the acting. In Poland, Grotowski was both closely monitored and economically supported by the Communist regime. In Korea, Kim Hyuntak is free to come and go in his cellar, nobody checks up on him; only a few ardent supporters and critics ever pay him a visit. During my stay, I saw all of his productions, usually more than once. After each performance, I would talk with him, with the help of my interpreter, who is also his dramaturg. My objections, his answers, always the same.