Passion of Ten Thousand Miles

How did colonial rule and division change the lives of artists?

“Through the lives of the ‘clowns’ of that era, which mirrored our nation’s fate, we hope to offer direction to today’s cultural movement.” (Director’s note)

A period drama about the turbulent, passionate lives of artists who appear in the history of Korean theatre, the play shows how colonial rule and division shaped their lives — and reveals that the lives and art of these forgotten players remain a great root of Korean theatre today.

In spring 1928, a storm tears away the tent of the touring sinpa troupe “Bukgeukseong.” Fed up with their manager, Park Cheol, Hong Jong-min, Lee Wol-seon and others quit together. Hong and Wol-seon marry, and the three join the company “Gaebyeokjwa” — until a youth leaps on stage scattering leaflets about the Gwangju Student Movement, and the troupe is crushed. Over the following decades the friends scatter across sinpa troupes, modern-theatre groups, the leftist KAPF, pro-Japanese propaganda theatre, Manchuria’s anti-Japanese volunteer units, and the opposing camps of liberation and the Korean War. Hong, who refuses to join right-wing troupes, is denounced as a communist and executed after the war. Forty years later Park, now an elder of Yanbian theatre, visits Seoul and finds Wol-seon living alone in a nursing home.

Plays-within-the-play bring to life works known only from history books — Janghanmong, Arirang Pass, Deceived by Love, Weeping for Money — capturing the anguish and fortunes of the artists of the time.

The production itself had a turbulent life. Authorities warned that scenes including a Yanbian play said to be the source of North Korea’s Sea of Blood might violate the law, and that section was cut; its selection for the Seoul Theatre Festival was withdrawn at the last minute. Its portrayal of national theatre as the true lineage and modern-theatre groups as collaborators also sparked fierce debate. At the centre of arguments over both theatre history and freedom of expression, it was the hottest issue in Korean theatre at the time.