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* photo by Yun, Yu-na
The theater MAKer
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What do you picture in your mind when you hear the word "thief"? Perhaps it is a man who steals money after secretly climbing over another man's wall or, a person in a black suit, with a mask on his face, and carrying a big bundle. Let me introduce a original play "The thief and the thief" by the company 'Onnuri'. This play gives a chance for the audience to rethink common perceptions about thieves.
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The silent stage is filled with thick fog and red laser beams from action detectors. For a moment, steps are heard somewhere. What a tense moment! The body shapes show up in the nick of time and they pass over the red line skillfully. It reminds you of the movie 'Mission Impossible.' As you might have suspected, these figures are three thieves who are breaking into the house of Bae, Jae-ra, an incumbent Assemblyman in the play. The thieves are a complete family (The Lees and their daughter). Assemblyman Bae's palatial mansion is filled with high-priced goods, so the mother (Mrs. Lee) and the daughter busily fill their bags with expensive articles. But Mr. Lee restrains them. His behavior is not as we might expect. Instead, he says, "We are not here for robbery, TODAY! We will have a family vacation here." They are here for their vacation while Assemblyman Bae is on overseas vacation with his family. |
While the Lee family in on vacation in assemblyman Bae's house, they pretend to be the Bae family. However, the doorbell rings, and a stranger visits the Bae's house. The Lees face up to this unexpected difficulty and keep on pretending to be the assemblyman's family. However, the stranger suddenly threatens to kill Mr. Lee, thinking he is the assemblyman. Despite the urgency of the situation, the Lees are unable to say, "We are JUST thieves, not assemblyman Bae's family." |
* photo by the company 'Onnuri'
The actors
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As the play progresses, we learn that the stranger's father used to grow grew grapes. One day, he committed suicide by taking poison, because Korea and Chile sealed a free-trade agreement, thanks to assemblyman Bae. So the stranger made up his mind to revenge himself on Mr. Bae. |
At this point, a new character appears on the stage. It is a guard from a security enterprise. The guard asks about the family's identity (the Lee family and the stranger) over and over again, until they finally manage to send the strange guard away. Then, Mr. Lee decides to tell the truth to the stranger, since he cannot bear to stay in such an unpleasant situation. As the play comes to its conclusion, another character destroys the atmosphere once more, as a Japanese special messenger appears and tells them "Dokdo is ours, Dokdo is Japanese."
The play is full of satire. "The thief and the thief" is a comedy and also gives us suggestion at the same time. There are some thieves in the play, and they tell us there are other thieves around the world apart from robbers:
Mrs. Lee: (Looking around the Bae's palatial mansion) Why have they left for an overseas vacation? This is a wonderful place for a vacation, isn't it? How can they have such a huge property?
Mr. Lee: It comes from the people's taxes!
Miss Lee: Really? Appropriating public money, tax evasion¡¦. They are REAL thieves!
Mrs. Lee: How can this be? There is a large gap between our life although we are the SAME thieves!
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* photo by the company 'Onnuri'
The scenes of the play "The thief and the thief" |
Also, the characters show ridiculous actions when they mimic the assemblyman's way of talking, clothes and so on. They speak in poor English, dance a hip dance to classical music and drink a glass of wine in one exaggerated gulp. In this situation, it would be good to think deeply about the definition of elegance.
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The play "The thief and the thief" has lots of fun, though it deals with some heavy problems. In particular, it establishes a strong mutual understanding between the players and the audience. For example, the actors rush into the audience seats and hide themselves (to express their role as thieves in the play) or use the audience's bags as their own property. This makes the audience think seriously about many things while giving them plenty of opportunities for loud laughter from the start to the close. Don't worry about missing chance to see this play. The company 'Onnuri' is full of passion for performing. They will meet you from 13th December to 18th December in the fusion new-school drama "Lee Soo-il and Sim Soon-ae". You can visit them at that time, and feel the passion. |
By Yun, Yu-na, reporter (e-mail : angkumiyagu@hanmail.net) |
