There could not be a more perfect place to witness the fusion of two very different cultural heritages than London. Home to the famous Shakespeare’s Globe and now a melting pot of different cultures, it is the perfect place for the National Changgeuk Company of Korea to stage their production of “Lear”, their take on one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies in the form of changgeuk.
In fact, changgeuk itself is a form born out of East-West fusion. It merges traditional Korean folk-style singing, known as pansori, with Western theatre, thus creating a unique form of drama. Nevertheless, as with all forms of artistic innovation and creative fusion, it calls into question whether this might actually enhance the original, and whether something new is always good.
In terms of staging, the National Changgeuk Company has done well in creating a bleak landscape to draw the audience into the world of Lear where not even the tiniest sliver of hope seems to penetrate through. Certain abstract features such as the hanging structure of wavy lines in the second half also added to the symbol of movement suggested at the outset of the changgeuk.
However, it is the central role “water” plays in the drama that is a truly significant addition by this Korean adaptation. While the imagery of water appears in Shakespeare’s play, the Changgeuk Company’s “Lear” focuses on this image and gives it an integral role. Not only is it externalized onto the wide strip of water stretching across the middle of the stage, it is also a theme and subject in a lot of the songs written specially for this changgeuk. Water and what it represents becomes the philosophy of the characters and their worldview, even when different characters use it for their own purposes very differently. In the final scene, Lear is seen preparing to send the body of his dead daughter Cordelia down the river. While this was a great way of giving the performance a unifying theme, at times the metaphor felt a bit strained, as if the changgeuk was trying hard to squeeze the subject into this symbol.
The use of the Korean pansori style of singing really accentuated the expressive content of the play. With the sound production of the singer coming from the throat rather than a more stylized and mannered head tone, as well as its lack of adherence to Western diatonic structures but hovering around the microtonal spectrum, the singing is much closer to raw wailing, and in this way a lot more powerful in expressing raw emotions such as grief and desperation.
Nevertheless, after a while it seemed that there was simply too many emotional climaxes. One eventually loses sight of the plot as it becomes subsumed into waves of emotion. Moreover, the power of the expression in the changgeuk seems to override the characterization, and after a while all the characters seemed to be expressing grief and anger in the same way, thus obfuscating our sense of the different characters and how they are involved in the drama. Somewhere in the middle of the changgeuk I had the muddy sense that everyone was simply yelling at each other. Whether this is inherent in changgeuk and therefore my confusion stems from ignorance I cannot really say, but one thing that is certain is that it takes away from the content of the play proper.
The Koreans also seemed particularly keen on milking the most out of moments of heightened drama, as if the medium of pansori wasn’t emotional enough. The changgeuk at times seemed to thrive on these short bursts of emotionally intense moments, losing sight of how they contribute to the bigger picture of the tragedy. Unfortunately this got to a point bordering on farce, as when, after having his eyes gouged out, the Duke of Gloucester splashed, wailed and flailed around in the water for about a minute. Sometimes subtlety can be a tool of much more intense expression but the Koreans seemed keen to ensure that they delivered their message without any misunderstanding and in doing so, might have just overdone it.
All in all, I appreciated the fusion of East and West cultures in the Changgeuk Company’s production of “Lear”, but I believe that their adaptation and performance has caused the play to lose some of its dramatic structure and integrity. Perhaps much more consideration to the form of the original play is needed to fully incorporate it with this very interesting and expressive Korean art form.
Rating: 6/10
Featured photo courtesy of Korean Culture Centre UK.
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