Now In Korea
The Stage Asks: Can Human Nature Be Redeemed?
Creatrip Team
2 months ago
This fall theatre season in Korea revisits classics; one notable production is the National Theatre’s Antropolis I: Prologue/Dionysos, the first of Roland Schimmelpfennig’s five-part reworking of Greek tragedy. Directed by Yoon Han-sol, the play reimagines ancient tragedy through a contemporary lens—written during the pandemic—and uses the Greek tragic form to probe human nature amid civilization and industrialization. Act I, “Prologue,” presents a grave, stationary sequence in a dressing-room-like set, tracing human settlement, lived events, and death with stark, flat deliveries. Act II, “Dionysos,” contrasts with vibrant, grooving young women in reggae hairstyles serving as the chorus and a popstar-like Dionysos; modern touches (including live cam) are integrated skillfully to heighten immediacy and tension. The performance ends engulfed by primal chaos: King Pentheus of Thebes defends reason against Dionysos but is defeated as Dionysian madness spreads like an invisible contagion—men wear stockings and children’s undergarments, women nurse animals and hunt their own sons—prompting the audience to question how violence and suffering in disorder lead to reflection. The production invites painful questions about humanity in the face of pandemic and climate crisis.
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