Traditional Play
January 27, 2006
I went to a traditional Korean play today. I
believe it was about or from Jeju Island, which is an island off the
coast of South Korea that falls in it's territory. Kind of
like Hawaii for USA. I didn't understand the language, but the
play was active enough for me to understand what was going on.
From what I could tell, a beautiful maiden was being courted by a
person in town who had an overbearing wife. The villagers
conspired to make a fool of him and caught him in her bedroom late
one night. It was a comedy and pretty fun. The actors
forgot their lines sometimes and got cues from two musicians that
sat on the side of the stage. Some of the acting wasn't so
great, but I think this was what I would call a community theater
production, so it was still quite enjoyable.
About half way through the show, a couple of the main
characters went through the audience and interacted with them.
They noticed me and they both spoke to me in English saying "Hello,
are you enjoying this show, etc." They even spoke to me later
in the show from the stage. The audience got a real kick out
of that.
What I learned
today about Korea: 1) A big white American man in an
audience filled with Koreans really stands out!
