Vampire classic ‘Let the Right One In’ casts haunting, melancholic magic on stage

Actors rehearse a scene from "Let the Right One In." (Seensee Company)

Some stories never grow old. Neither does Eli, the eternally young vampire in "Let the Right One In," the 2004 Swedish novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist that has spawned numerous adaptations -- film, television and stage.

This July, the haunting tale returns to Seoul as a chilling, yet tender coming-of-age love story, just in time for the summer heat.

Running from July 3 to Aug. 16 at the National Theater of Korea's Haeoreum Theater, the Korean-language stage production makes its long-awaited return nine years after its 2016 local premiere.

“Luckily, the production seems to be timeless like Eli,” said John Tiffany, the Tony and Olivier Award-winning director behind "Once" and "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child."

Speaking to the press via video call following an open rehearsal on Tuesday, Tiffany reflected on the enduring life of the piece, which first opened with the National Theatre of Scotland before traveling to London, New York and beyond.

“But it’s changed with every new audience and every new actor that’s come to work with us,” he said.

The story follows Oskar, a lonely, bullied teenage boy who lives with his mother on the outskirts of town. When a string of grisly murders begins to plague the neighborhood, Oskar meets Eli -- the strange girl who moves in next door. What unfolds is a dark, poignant bond between two outsiders: one human, the other something else entirely.

Tiffany described "Let the Right One In" as a retelling of the Peter Pan story, which has always fascinated him.

“It’s got these melancholy and quiet stories about death and living forever," he said. "And in James Barrie's 'Peter Pan,' you realize that the only way truly to live forever like Peter is to be dead. The dead are immortal. And that's certainly true for Eli, obviously. And you get the sense as the story goes on that Eli is like Peter and Hakan is like Wendy and Oskar is Jane, Wendy's daughter."

Tiffany found the dynamics compelling -- not only the vampire mythology, but also its connection to fairy tales and the supernatural.

“These stories reflect aspects of our lives, even though our lives aren’t fairy tales or supernatural — though they may feel that way at times,” he said. “And yet, what 'Let the Right One In' and 'Peter Pan' both tell us is that it's desperately lonely and sad to stay alive and immortal."

The director, who has helmed several adaptations from screen and book to stage, including "Once" and "Wild Rose," described the process as one of discovering a story’s DNA and rebuilding it using the cells of theater.

“I enjoy seeing how something that’s purely cinematic can become purely theater. And theater, to me, is really a genre for horror. I quite like the idea of terrifying people in a live experience."

Set to the hauntingly beautiful score by Icelandic composer Olafur Arnalds, which flows like an emotional undercurrent throughout the 140-minute performance, the production also draws its emotional power from dance-like movement sequences created by Tiffany’s longtime collaborator, movement director Steven Hoggett.

"Oskar finds it hard to describe what he's feeling. He finds it hard to connect and to be understood emotionally," Tiffany explained. "In theater, movement is an incredibly powerful way to explore the desire to communicate, or how to articulate emotion in an emotional story."

Tiffany noted how naturally the story fits into the Korean cultural landscape, citing the country’s rich tradition of horror storytelling.

“There’s a strong tradition of horror in Korean cinema -- films like 'Thirst,' 'The Host' and 'Train to Busan,'" he said. "So it felt like it was coming home in lots of ways."

hwangdh@heraldcorp.com