Guerrilla Theatre

The Jungle Guerrillas’ Revolutionary Method

About the Play

Selected as the sole winning work in the 2013 ‘Spring Forth, Playwrights’ competition and premiered at the 2014 Seoul Theatre Festival by Geuk Dan A Ri-rang, the play Guerrilla Theatre returns to the stage after a one-year hiatus.

Guerrilla Theatre originated from an anecdote about theatre director Augusto Boal. Guerrillas from impoverished farming backgrounds in the South American jungle, unable to read or write, wanted to explain to nearby villagers why they were resisting the government. They asked Boal to teach them theatre so they could stage their thoughts and beliefs. Boal agreed and journeyed into the jungle once a month to coach them, but with relentless clashes against government troops, fewer fighters remained each time he returned. One day, Boal arrived in the jungle to find only two guerrillas left. The two fighters tentatively asked Boal if they could still do theatre. An exasperated Boal shouted, “In this hellish reality, what good is theatre?” The two guerrillas looked quietly at Boal and replied:

These timid guerrillas from destitute farming families—utterly unsuited for combat—had been casting a spell on themselves through theatre, believing it could transform them into brave revolutionaries.

“In this hellish reality, what will become of us if we don’t even have theatre?”

“We are all just human beings. We want a world where one can eat as much as one sweats; where everyone can sleep beneath warm, soft blankets; where anyone can go to school and anyone can receive care at a hospital; where discrimination, oppression, and injustice do not exist; and where sons and daughters do not have to inherit their parents’ despair…”

Synopsis

A jungle hideout, deep in the wild!

Captain, Big Eyes, Grumpy, and Double Eyelids! Four guerrillas left home behind to change the world. Yet they have never even seen an airplane, and their only weapons are carved out of wood. Then, one quiet day, the roar of an airplane echoes overhead as propaganda leaflets rain down. Having seen the leaflets, the forest keeper and Pretty Girl, who live beneath the canopy, refuse to help the guerrillas any longer. In response, the guerrillas prepare a play to win them back.

Meanwhile, a government search party infiltrates the jungle. Posing as ordinary villagers, they slip into the house of the forest keeper and Pretty Girl to track the guerrillas’ movements. Discovering Double Eyelids—Pretty Girl’s lover—they coerce him into planting Wide Eyes, an undercover government soldier, right into the guerrilla headquarters. Wide Eyes is chosen to take the lead role in the play in place of his twin brother and guerrilla hero, Big Eyes…

Unstoppable and heartfelt: the guerrillas’ life theatre now raises its curtain.