“That Night, We Cut 40,000 Hands”: Guards at the Taj Returns to Korea
Creatrip Team
2 months ago
The play Guards at the Taj, returning to Korea in 2025, stages Rajiv Joseph’s brutal moral dilemma behind the beauty of the Taj Mahal. Set in 1648 India just before the monument’s completion, two imperial guards—the rule-bound Humayun and the free-spirited Babur—are ordered by the emperor to sever the hands of 20,000 artisans so no one can ever build anything more beautiful. The production confronts audiences with the physical and psychological fallout: a stark visual of white marble built on “4만개의 손” (40,000 hands) and the guards’ trauma as they slip in blood onstage. Strong performances from Korean actors (Choi Jae-rim, Baek Seok-gwang, Lee Seung-joo, Park Eun-seok) and direction by Shin Yoo-chung bring the play’s questions about absolute power, conscience, and the cost of beauty into sharp relief. Playing at LG Arts Center Seoul U+Stage through Jan 4, the 90-minute drama forces viewers to choose between complicity and resistance.
