This production looks wonderful: a funeral casket, flanked by beautifully painted Korean drums, sits centre stage. Standing behind it, a wailing woman, whose voice is captured by a singer at the back who is simultaneously beating out an intoxicating beat on the drum. To all intents and purposes then this looks like it will be a captivating piece. There is some great costuming in this production as well; it is full of well-chosen pieces that evoke authenticity. It is sad then that, despite these aspects, this Korean musical, a type of performance that is clearly not prevalent at the Fringe, falls short.
From the outset, the lyrics are cheesy, the music is ill-advised and non-traditional, and the singing is, for the most part, bordering on terrible. If money has been spent on a ticket to a show in the Musicals and Operas section then it is not unreasonable to assume that the company will be able to sing loud enough to be heard and possibly in tune.
Some parts of this performance are extremely good. The Korean drumming draws out applause from the audience and the forest demon scene, with its colourful costumes and bewitching impish giggles, is particularly enthralling. These sections seem like the stars of the piece, as if the remarkably bad singing and under-acted plot were merely serving to highlight how talented these performers could be in the other areas.
The piece suffered and was almost intolerable because of the terrible acting, singing, and lack of direction. This was most prominent in the presence of ‘stone’ tattooed in a Chinese character on the upper arm of the main character, Ondal - played incongruously by a white American man. If a director cannot even be bothered to order that a Chinese tattoo be concealed in a Korean production, what hope can there be for the rest of the show?
