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Jasmine Gwangju {THEATRE}
dom Apart from a couple of previews, Edinburgh audiences will be the first to see Jasmine Gwangju. The creative team are convinced that the message is strong enough to overcome cultural and language issues and have decided against supertitles or other distracting add-ons. It is quite a lot for a western viewer the unfamiliarity of the material adds to the power of the piece.
to absorb but
The show’s climax, when the victim’s unhappy soul is finally released, takes the form of a traditional shaman ceremony. Although few people now practise shamanism, it remains at the core of much Korean culture. It is visually spectacular, a ‘THE SKY WAS DARK EVEN THOUGH IT WAS DAYTIME’
On 18 May 1980 the Gwangju Uprising kicked off the painful process of democratisation in South Korea. Now a multimedia extravaganza premiering at the Fringe celebrates the event, as Anna Burnside discovers
ritual cleansing performed in magnificent white ceremonial robes, with fluttering strips of paper on a long pole signifying the paper money that will help the soul to ascend. Even to western eyes, the neck-prickling music and the tender attentions of the healing figure make it quite clear what is happening.
‘Shaman rituals are common on Jin Island,’ says Il Won, the musical director. ‘It is a ceremony which can be understood by people all over the world. When Catholics hold mass, everyone understands that. It is similar with shaman rituals.’ Won composed all the original music for Jasmine Gwangju, using traditional Korean instruments but pulling in contemporary forms. He found inspiration in an unexpected place: the work of Italian avant garde composer Luigi Nono: ‘He made music from the tragedy of the Nazi occupation of Europe and the Second World War. I have listened to his music a lot. The music in Jasmine Gwangju is an homage to him.’
Like the ceremonies and visual language of
the piece, the sparse, heterophonic soundtrack is unfamiliar to western ears. Yet it is powerfully affecting. ‘It is,’ says Won, ‘not harmonic, it has its own rhythmical vibration and sound, with strong vibrations.’ The heterophonic structure is another Jin Island influence: ‘Usually the instrument follows the human voice, but their music depends on the other voice. One person sings a song first, the others follow.’ It’s typical of a show that uses modern forms to give a history lesson. Unlike many products of modern, iPad-using, Abercrombie and Fitch-wearing South Korea, Jasmine Gwangju’s creators are willing to look back as well as forward. ‘People of our age experienced a lot in those days,’ says Jae-ho Son, the director. ‘We need to do something to commemorate the dead. Many of us feel guilty that we survived when others lost their lives.’
Jasmine Gwangju, EICC, 0844 847 1639, 13–19 August, 5.30pm, £10 (£7).
F E S T I V A L 11–18 Aug 2011 THE LIST 73