Like the myth of Pygmalion, the kNOT theater company is bringing visual art to life, weaving together the centuries-old tableau vivant tradition with inventive 21st century approaches to create live theater out of a series of paintings by the 18th century Korean artist Shin Yun-bok. The process involves many strands, including live dancers, computer animation, digital puppetry, original music, photo capture, enough sound effects to fill a radio drama — everything except spoken language. The effect is extraordinary, resulting in what feels like an exciting new form of theater.
“maedeup: Weaving Shin Yun-bok” is finishing its too-brief four-day run at La MaMa today at 4 p.m.; it’s free with an RSVP. This is a show that deserves a lot more life. But maybe it could use a more inviting title? (Maedeup, 매듭, is the Korean word for “knot,” which I’m sure has connotations for Koreans of which I am unaware.)
Shin Yun-bok painted everyday scenes picturing both men and women; many of the men were scholars (evident by their imposing black hats); many of the women entertainers. “Maedeup” takes ten of those paintings (reproductions of which are also hanging in the lobby.) Unlike traditional tableaux vivant, the performers, wearing the flowing white robes of the period, only freeze in the pose of each painting at the very end of an elaborate scene.
The production photographs can’t capture how delicate, vibrant and dynamic these scenes are. They are even more difficult to describe. The dancers tell a story in movement and costume. At the same time, at a table to the left of the stage, two cast members supplement the original recorded music with a variety of musical instruments, some traditionally Korean, some makeshift, along with a series of special sound effects. At a table to the right of the stage, a cast member places a variety of items, many of them Korean cultural totems, on a board that is projected onto the screen at the back of the stage.
At the end of each scene, the performers slide into a pose, a camera projects their live image onto that back screen, and then the photographic image morphs into a projection of the painting.
Each scene varies in approaches. For the painting “Two Lovers Under the Moon,” the two performers holding lanterns engage in a kind of shadow puppetry; only their shadows interact.
My favorite scene was for the painting “Moon-Night Secret Meeting,” accompanied by a score of pure jazz, with a woman yielding a sword with ultimate cool, even blowing on it in imitation of a gunslinger in an old Western, then reaching out and drawing in another gal for an intimate, elegant embrace, as if to tango.
Sometimes, the manipulations projected onto the screen during the scene turn the traditional Korean painting into something far closer to modern art. Here is Young People Out on a Spring Excursion..
before it becomes
You’ll notice the young people of the 21st century (not the 18th) are wearing sunglasses, and are as chic as runway models. I half-expect “maedeup” to wind up getting a spread in Vogue.
