By Kim Eun-young and Kim Young Shin
Photos = National Gugak Center
Seoul | Nov. 13, 2018

“Please take care of my grandmother on her last journey, Kokdu.” said Su-min, a young girl who held on to the wooden sculpture that hung on her grandmother’s bier.

Kkokdu, or kokdu (꼭두), a wooden figure that is usually hung on a bier, is believed to be the guardian spirit that ushers the dead into the next world and serves them there. It is a symbol of Korea’s traditional funeral. Kokdu comes in many different shapes including dragon and phoenix but mostly human.

The national Gugak Center presented the press rehearsal of the new version of the traditional gugak musical “Kokdu,” on a stage at its theater in Seoul on Nov. 15. The performance was a combination of video, drama and gugak. It was once again directed by Kim Tae-yong who was also in charge of the premiere performance in 2017.

During the 90-minute performance, Su-min and Dong-min, two young siblings, look for their grandmother’s flowered shoes in the otherworld along with four kokdus that play the role of a guide, a guard, a caregiver and an entertainer. The screen portrays this world while actors, gugak musicians and traditional dancers present the next world on stage.

On the way to the afterlife, dancers and musicians decorated the scene with traditional buchaechum fan dance (부채춤), jangguchum hourglass drum dance (장구춤) and ganggangsullae group circle dance (강강술래). As grandmother’s whole life plays on screen, the singer on the stage sings about the evanescence of life and death. The melodies played by traditional instruments like haegeum (two-string fiddle, 해금) and gayageum (12-stringed zither, 가야금) adds to the mournful mood.

“Kokdu deals with death, usually a dark theme, with light and cheerful manner with video, play and gugak music,” said Director Kim. “I think people around the world will be able to easily relate to the theme.”

The musical will be performed at the National Gugak Center until Nov. 24. English captions and a 40 percent discount on all seats are provided for non-Korean Gugak theater-goers. Tickets are available from Interpark (http://www.globalinterpark.com/main/main).









eykim86@korea.kr