A critically acclaimed Korean play for children titled The Tiger With White Eyebrows will be staged here tomorrow. Its director chats with Samiksha Raj
Have you heard of the tiger who can read people’s mindIJ You have a chance to meet him at Ipsaa House, Gurgaon. He is one of the characters of the Korean play Pansori (traditional song of Korea). Taroo group, Korea-based performance group, and Korean singers are here to take children for a rendezvous with this ‘tiger’ who has magical powers in a stage play cum musical.
The Korean play takes its title and inspiration from a short Korean folktale called The Tiger With White Eyebrows. “The inspiration lies in the bedtime grandma stories. I once visited my friend’s house, where her daughter wanted me to narrate a story on a tiger. Thereafter I started with some research and developed the story with the help of musicians and actors”, shares the play’s director, Kim Mi Jeong. A critically acclaimed production touring outside South Korea for the first time, The Tiger With White Eyebrows is a children’s play that falls back on the Korean Pansori tradition of musical storytelling. Four Pansori singers narrate this story, with a supporting cast and over 25 musical instruments. A handful of musicians take turns with different pieces. “I have mainly targetted the age-group of 9-10 years as they need to understand the Pansori art which includes singing and talking, however, it can be shown to families as well”, adds Jeong. The director also tells us that the play is composed of traditional Korean costumes, culture and recycled and modern musical instruments, like the sori-buk, jang-gu (percussion), gayagum (string instrument), dae-gum (long-bamboo flute), so–gum (short bamboo flute).
“We have a lot to learn from children as they have an unbiased mind. They don’t have prejudices, it’s natural that they can discover real things”, adds Jeong and shares that the play has an underlying message which can be an eye-opener for the adults. In order to cater to the Indian audience the music and the subtitle of the play have been done accordingly. “Popular names like the Himalayas, lord Shiva and Mahatama Gandhi have been used in the play so that the Indian audience can relate to it”, says Jeong.
Theatre made for the family — encompassing themes that draw from Korean values and that seek to gather the family around the proscenium — receive special assistance from the Korean government in the form of funding and infrastructural support. Theatre in Korea is increasingly recognised as a medium to propagate traditional wisdom in an age when grandmothers are seldom at hand to pass on folktales embedded with cultural counsel. “Theatre in Korea is very popular and highly technological. In general there are all kinds of theatre in the place and there’s great scope for it. In Seoul (South Korea’s Capital), we have more than 200 theatres for both children and families. In Korea, we have theatre shows throughout the year”, explains Jeong.
She distinguishes theatre from the more popular Hollywood and Bollywood stuff. “Most of the modern Hollywood-Bollywood presentations are quite passive in their overall effect. There’s only watching and listening and no participation. Theatre always gives you a chance to be completely involved with the flow of events on stage. It’s more active”, says Jeong.
The play will be staged tomorrow and day after.