“The Caucasian Chalk Circle,” a play written by German playwright Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), will be told through the soul-piercing sounds of “pansori” in an upcoming theatrical production in Seoul. 

A National Changgeuk Company of Korea production, the experimental work will be directed by Korean-Japanese playwright and stage director Jung Eui-shin, well-known for his award-winning play “Yakiniku Dragon” and “The Songs of Spring Flows into the Sea.”

“There is something about pansori that shakes human emotions,” Jung, 58, said at a news conference in Seoul on Monday. It is his first foray into “changgeuk,” traditional Korean opera based on pansori. 

“I wanted to see how the two art forms with distinctively different origins ― Western epic theater and Korean pansori ― can be combined,” the director said, sharing his motives for helming the project. “I thought the original story is well fitted for narrating in pansori style.”

“The Caucasian Chalk Circle” is a parable about the peasant girl Grusha, who rescues a baby abandoned by his wealthy mother Natella during the war. Few years later, Natella accuses Grusha of kidnapping her son, asking for full custody. The two go to court.

Brecht wrote it around the end of World War II, while he was in the U.S. in exile from Nazi Germany.

Reflecting the tumultuous period, the play mirrors war atrocities and his own perception of the world.

Jung focused on arranging movements and sounds to make harmony in telling this compelling story. He said the changgeuk version will keep much of the original story, except the conclusion.

“I want to convey peace, through a story of people torn apart from war,” said Jung. The focus will not be the protagonists only,” he said. “Each and every character in the play will come alive.”

Kim Sung-kook, head director of Chung Ang Traditional Orchestra who composed the music, said pansori pieces will be the core of the work.

But it will also incorporate different sounds of instruments, including guitar, drum, bass, string instruments and Korean traditional instruments. “Experimental elements will be allocated throughout the work,” he said.

For the troupe’s director Kim Sung-nyo, “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” will help promote changgeuk.

“Not limiting changgeuk to a certain format, I would like to try and incorporate everything possible to recreate changgeuk so that the genre can attract global audiences.”

“The Caucasian Chalk Circle” will be staged at Haeoreum Theater of the National Theater of Korea in Seoul from March 21-28. Ticket prices run from 20,000 won to 70,000 won. For more information, call (02) 2280-4114.

By Ahn Sung-mi (sahn@heraldcorp.com)