WILLYLOMAN Begins
Daehakro Theatre QUAD (Seoul, Korea)
Apr 25, 2024
~
Apr 28, 2024
Adaption, Direction, Choreography, Staging, Props, Costumes, and Decor, and Song Curation by
Kim Hyuntak
Original Play by
Arthur Miller
Jang Jaeho |
Kim Mi Ok |
Seol Suho |
Lim Joo Young |
Kim Namhyun |
Han Byeong Yun |
Choi Minhyeok |
Kwag Young Hyun |
Kim Seunghyun |
Lee Da Hye |
Jeong Junhyuk |
Yun Sieun |
Cast
Staff
Lighting Designer : Hong Juhee
Photographer : Kim Chul Seong
PR Manager : Kwag Young Hyun, Hyun Seungil
Production Manager : An Soobin
Company Manager : Ji Dae Hyun
Description
On the long stage, Willy's living room is set up, with Willy sitting at the dining table, brimming with thoughts of cashing in on his insurance. Between his fantasies and hallucinations, the objects in the living room naturally transform into a 1928 Chevrolet car that had accompanied him throughout his life on the road.
Throughout the running time, fragments of Willy's happy and arduous life flicker and pass by with a wavering energy in his eyes as he drives on the road. A traffic cop or a street cleaner becomes his deceased brother Ben, who tells stories of the once-glorious Roman family and their father, urging Willy towards suicide by suggesting they go make money in a diamond mine. Meanwhile, his wife Linda's concern for his health overlaps with the seduction by his mistress Frances, as if traffic lights were dancing. Moments of happiness with his son or sweet fantasies of his son's success surround him, only to be shattered by the most humiliating memory of being caught by his son Biff during an affair with Frances. Everything Willy encounters while driving is replaced by fragments of his memories, approaching him with a breathless energy, colliding with him, and unfolding not as some meaningful event from the past or future, but as a vivid, intense reality in the present moment of Willy's rush towards death.
The audience, seated on both sides of the road, will witness in real time the process of an ordinary family man becoming a tragic hero. They will vividly experience scenes where fragments of his arduous life, passion, desires, and regrets intermingle.
Review
The stage consists solely of a few pieces of furniture: a table and some chairs. As these pieces of furniture transform into a Chevrolet car, as if assembled from Lego, Kim Hyuntak reverses the curtain call even before the performance begins. The performance starts with the actors offering a comforting applause to the audience, signifying that they, the actors, are consoling the contemporary audience. By presenting the actual stage manager as a raw character on stage, the play begins by stripping away theatrical illusions, emphasizing that "Willy Loman Begins" is both a play and a reflection of our reality.
Willy Loman, who stakes his life's hopes on $20,000 and races down the high-speed industrial roads of American capitalism, satirizes figures emblematic of American neoliberal wealth and leading global IT companies. These figures include KFC founder Harland Sanders, Apple’s Steve Jobs, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, and Tesla’s Elon Musk, thereby mocking the global free market economy and neo-capitalism. Despite the father’s sacrifices, his family is depicted as divided marionette puppets, representing their fragmented and arduous lives, unable to form a cohesive family unit. This work ridicules hegemonic capitalism and maximizes Kim Hyuntak’s playfulness, making his playful directing style stand out in "Willy Loman Begins."
The play portrays the father’s pursuit of the American Dream in a diamond mine, human desires and despair, and his tragic sacrifices for $20,000, with parodied scenes ranging from KFC to Apple (including parodies of "The Wizard of Oz" and "Alice in Wonderland"). Kim Hyuntak transforms the father's death, as he drives through life in a Chevrolet, into that of a modern-day Superman. With wires attached to his body, Willy Loman becomes a flying Superman, signifying that his tragic heroism persists even in death, reflecting the harsh realities of our times. Kim Hyuntak's approach reawakens the audience to the fact that this era's Superman still exists behind the scenes of the stage. The downside is that the focus on the playfulness and the dominance of American capitalism's hegemony overshadow the father's pain and sacrifice, which are somewhat diminished. Despite this, the actors follow Kim Hyuntak's signals and play earnestly on stage. Actor Jang Jaeho, playing Willy Loman, delivers a commendable performance, yet the playfulness of the actors somewhat reduces the intensity of the father's anguish. Nonetheless, the work remains distinctly Kim Hyuntak's, full of vitality.
-Kim Gun Pyo, 2024-05-10, Maeil News, https://www.imaeil.com/page/view/2024050921482557110
