Masters of Korea’s traditional music and dance have joined forces with a famed stage director to present a new theatrical production that could redefine tradition.

“Gongmudoha (Don’t Cross that River),” to be staged at the National Gugak Center in Seoul from Nov. 21-30, is the culmination of the state-run center’s efforts to transform gugak from a neglected genre to the face of contemporary Korean culture. 

“I thought that the only way to truly answer the question of how we should popularize or modernize gugak was to create and present something (with gugak) that general audiences can enjoy,” Kim Hae-sook, the center’s chief, said, explaining how it all began.

To ensure its success, Kim is pouring all available resources at the center into the production, putting artistic director and master vocalist Ahn Sook-sun on stage as a narrator and utilizing all four provincial units of the center, its gugak orchestra, smaller ensembles and a dance troupe.

It has also brought in renowned stage director Lee Youn-taek to helm the production. 

“Gongmudoha” was penned by Lee himself, with its motif taken from the ancient poem of the same title.

Thought to be the oldest lyric poem in Korea, the poem is about a crazy old man who attempts to walk across a river, only to drown, leaving his wife in a bottomless pit of sadness.

It starts with the famous first line “My love, don’t cross that river.”

The upcoming production draws from the old tale and explores the meaning of rivers and why the crazy man tried to cross one in the first place in a modern context.

“It starts with this ancient poem, but it is essentially about modern-day Korea,” explained the director.

The show has two parallel stories, each told by a narrator.

One tells of a man who gets lost in Seoul’s maze of apartment buildings, unable to recollect the address of the home he recently moved to. Wandering around, he accidentally crosses the river that separates the past and the present and enters into his former life.

The other story is about a man who meets a North Korean woman in a Chinese city near the China-North Korea border and falls in love. He crosses the river into the communist country to find his love.

“The drama is backed by this grandiose music which bridges all genres of gugak, including pansori (traditional narrative music),” the director said.

“Gongmudoha” will raise the curtain on Nov. 21 at Yeakdang (Main Hall) of the National Gugak Center, located near Seocho Station on Line No. 3. Tickets cost 10,000 won to 50,000 won.

For more information, visit www.gugak.go.kr or call (02) 580-3300.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)