A musical set in a North Korean prison camp? Yoduk Story opening last night, is exactly that, as Reuters reports. Now here is an antidote for all the self-congratulatory political posturing of the Oscars. Sorry Paul Haggis, but making a PC film in a PC town, doesn’t qualify as dissent. However, borrowing money against your kidney to stage a musical critical of a regime thought to be massing troops at the border for a possible future invasion takes real guts.
I would really like to see this imported to the New York stage. After all, the New York Theatre Workshop might still have an opening. Translating musicals is truly challenging, but this seems like a worthy project, and Americans should learn more about both Koreas. Unlike the Palestinian propaganda piece My Name is Rachel Corrie or the next revival of A Chorus Line scheduled for the Fall, this is a show that could really teach the NY theater community something about dissent in the face of tyranny. I don’t know if that’s something they want to learn about, but I’d like an opportunity to see for myself. Besides, I’d like Jung Sung-san to keep his kidney.
