Seoul Performing Arts Festival to be held for one month

Playgoers and dance lovers await the Seoul Performing Arts Festival every autumn. The largest international performance festival held locally, the festival greets its 16th anniversary this year. People compete to get tickets every year since they can appreciate works of famous global artists at between 30,000 won (27 U.S. dollars) and 70,000 won (63 dollars).

This year's event will be held for a month from Sept. 30 at Arco Arts Theater and Daehangno Theater in Daehangno, northern Seoul, in participation of 17 groups from six countries. People can enjoy fresh ideas and international performances.

The work that claims this year's hottest attention is "Woodcutter," the opening performance, and "Faust," the closing performance. Woodcutter is from the Polski Theatre in Wroclaw in Poland and runs 4 hours and 40 minutes. Polish theater director Krystian Lupa is in charge of production. The work is composed of episodes following a death of a person from a community of artists. Instead of people mourning for the dead person, the work lays out fear from unconsciousness, resentment and damages.

Five plays and five dance performance have been picked as Korean performance works, with four among them debuting at the festival. Play "Hello" that depicts the story of "Home that does not note," a short fiction of Kim Ae-ran, was performed by singer Lee Jaram in pansori. Another work is dance work "Memories on shame," which was choreographed by Professor Kim Yong-geol of Korea National University of Arts.

김정은기자 kimje@donga.com