2024-05-04 03:45:00
The bereaved family announced that theater director Lim Young-woong (88), director of the Sanwoollim Theater Company and “godfather of Korean theater”, died at 3:23 a.m. on the 4th.
Young-woong Lim was the eldest son in the lineage of Korean realist theater that continued with Yoo Chi-jin (1905-1974), Lee Hae-rang (1916-1989), and Cha Beom-seok (1924-2006) . However, during his lifetime, he used to say: “Words like ‘-prudence’ are just something that critics add when necessary” and “A play is essentially a human story, and this that I want to portray is nothing other than a human story. living human appearance.
In 1948, when he was a freshman at Whimoon Middle School, teacher Jo Heun-pa, the author of “Yalgaejeon,” appeared in a small role in the play “The Demon Prince,” and the Life of the deceased began to flow. only one direction: the theater. He entered Seorabeol University of the Arts and his first directing work was “The God of Breeding Animals” in 1955, when he was 21 years old. He worked as a reporter at the Chosun Ilbo and as a program producer at the Korea Broadcasting Corporation, but soon returned to acting.
The play “Waiting for Godot” is filled with contextless conversations between the characters as they wait endlessly for a character named “Godot.” From left to right: Pozzo (Myeong-guk Kim), Vladimir (Dong-hwan Jeong) and Estragon (Yong-soo Park). /Chosun Ilbo DB
After directing “Saljjagi Obseoye,” which made history as the first Korean musical in 1966, he embarked on the path of a full-time director. After the National Theater Company’s “Changing Seasons” (written by Oh Tae-seok) in 1968, the play “Waiting for Godot” (hereinfollowing referred to as “Godot”), which he had buried in his heart following read in Japanese translation while he was a journalist, was premiered on stage in 1969. The playwright Samuel Beckett having received the Nobel Prize for Literature before the opening of the performance, all tickets for the play were sold a week before the ‘opening. The small 300-seat theater was filled with 400 to 500 spectators, including standing room, for each performance. Lim Young-woong’s “Godot,” which was performed more than 1,500 times over the next half-century and seen by 220,000 spectators, has become a legend of Korean theater.
The success of the premiere prompted the establishment of the Sanullim Theater Company in 1970. The founding members included Kim Seong-ok, Ham Hyun-jin, Kim Moo-saeng, Kim In-tae, Kim Yong-rim , Sami-ja, Yoon So-jeong, Yoon Yeo-jeong and Son Sook, who created ‘Waiting for Godot’. The theater company’s founding performance in October of that year was also “Waiting for Godot.”
The deceased directed more than 60 plays at the Sanullim Theater Company. The repertoire was diverse, ranging from translated plays to original pieces, such as “What Happened in Vichy” by Arthur Miller, “Rock, Paper, Scissors” by Choi In-ho, “Long Day’s Journey into Night” by Eugene O ‘Neill and Lee The “Jurassic People” of Kang-baek. Sanullim Theater Company received the 2nd Lee Hae-rang Theater Award in 1992.
Actress Son Sook (left) rehearses the play “My Fantastic Disappearance” at the Sanullim Theater in 2013, and director Lim Young-woong gives instructions for the play. /Chosun Ilbo DB
In 1985, he used his personal funds to open the Sanullim Small Theater. The third floor of the theater building was his and his family’s living quarters. He owed much to his wife (Oh Jeung-ja, professor emeritus of French literature at Seoul Women’s University) who provided him with practical support, and a cultural support group was formed to help open the theater. During his lifetime, he used to say: “The best thing I did following I started acting was to open the small theater in Sanullim. » The fact that a theater company had its own small theater was in itself a piece of history. This theater became the center of a wave of women’s plays such as “Desperate Woman”, “Mama Discovered the Sea at Fifty”, “The Woman Who Smoked”, “Room in the Woods” and “Are You Still Dreaming.” The theater is run by his daughter, director Lim Soo-jin.
“Godot” was invited to the Olympic Culture and Arts Festival during the 1988 Seoul Olympics and was treated as a national play. British critic Martin Esslin, who coined the term “Theater of the Absurd,” saw it in person and gave it a review. favorable reviews, which made it popular abroad. The way for performances was also opened. In 1989, it was the first Korean play to participate in the Avignon Festival in France, and in 1990, it was invited to the Dublin Festival in Ireland, Beckett’s hometown. Local media hailed it with the headline: “Korean Godot is worth the wait.” Subsequently, Lim Young-woong’s “Godot” continued to be performed overseas in Poland, Italy, Japan, etc. In 2019, a performance commemorating the 50th anniversary of “Godot” was held at the Myeongdong Arts Theater in Seoul, planned by the National Theater Company.
Director Lim Young-woong sitting at the Sanullim Theater in Seogyo-dong, Seoul in 2019. On the 50th anniversary of the Korean premiere of “Waiting for Godot”, the Alzheimer’s sufferer said: ” I used to try to bring out the comedy in the characters, but these days I feel more compassion. I wonder if the clowns who waited for Godot for over 50 years are my image. . /Chosun Ilbo DB
Including the first Korean musical “Saljjagi Obseoye” in 1966, “Kkotnim!” He has also directed various musicals such as “Flower!” », “Fiddler on the Roof”, “Kiss Me Kate” and “Gambler”. In particular, “Gambler” is considered the most successful musical in the history of Korean performances overseas, attracting 300,000 spectators in Japan in 2002.
He has received the Baeksang Arts Award, the Dong-A Theater Award, the Korea Culture and Arts Award, the Seoul City Culture Award and the Korea Institute of Arts Award. He was awarded the Gold Crown Cultural Merit in 2016 and won the grand prize in the literary category at the 23rd Manhae Awards in 2019. He has served as president of the Theater Directors’ Association, president of the Theater Association and a member of the Korean National Academy of Arts.
He is survived by his wife, French literature translator Oh Jeung-ja, professor emeritus at Seoul Women’s University, as well as a son and a daughter. The funeral will be held in Room 3 of the funeral hall of Seoul National University Hospital in Jongno-gu, Seoul. The funeral was held on the 7th at 8 a.m. and the burial place was Seoul Memorial Park. (02)2072-2010
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