Horror Is Show
Seongsu Art Hall (Seoul, Korea)
Jun 5, 2025
~
Jun 13, 2025
Adaption, Direction, Choreography, Staging, Props, Costumes, and Decor, and Song Curation by
Kim Hyuntak
Original Play by
William Shakespeare
Lee Jin Sung |
Kim Namhyun |
Yang Eun Seo |
Jang Ji Ho |
Cho In Hee |
Jeong Junhyuk |
Lee Seong Won |
Yoon Nayoung |
Chung Woo Keun |
Jo Myeong Jin |
Minju Ahn |
Ahn Soo Jee |
Choi Yun Young |
Cast
Staff
Lighting Design: Shin Dong Sun
Stage Manager: Ji Dae Hyun
Production Manager: An Soobin
Dramaturgs: Park Hyo Kyung, Dohyun Shin
Photography: Kim Cheolseong
Company Manager : Kim Miok
Assistant Directer: Kwag Young Hyun
Organizer & Presenter: Seongbukdong Beedoolkee Theatre
Support: Arts Council Korea (ARKO) – Performing Arts Creation Support Program
Description
Hamlet: Horatio, thou art e’en as just a man
As e’er my conversation coped withal.
— William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2
A father who appears as a ghost, an uncle who has taken the throne, a mother who marries that uncle, a lover probing for his true intentions, and friends who pretend to worry while keeping him under surveillance. In a world where no one can be fully trusted, Hamlet dons the mask of madness and waits for the moment of revenge. His only true confidant is Horatio, the one who brings word of having seen the ghost of his father.
Horror Is Show portrays Korean society—where ideologies drift like ghosts—as a riotous variety show. Amid the chaos where moments from modern history collide with scenes from popular culture, Hamlet’s thoughts grow increasingly paralyzed, while Ophelia struggles beneath the surface, slowly sinking.
Hamlet and Ophelia become pigeons pecking at historical records. And behind them looms the shadow of Horatio, wearing a headset and shouting, “Stand by!”
Review
Snap! A Stage of Black Comedy and Satire
What if the outcome of the early presidential election had been different—would this performance have been able to go on safely? Catching myself worrying about this, I am startled by how easily I, too, can become accustomed to violence, much like the pigeons in the opening scene. Just as a bird that has once tasted flight continues to dream of the sky even while walking on the ground, those who have experienced democracy cannot simply return to being slaves of power.
To imprint who we are and where we come from, the actors of Horror Is Show snap their fingers sharply right in front of our faces—snap!—as if shouting with their entire bodies that the fight is far from over.
[…]
Montaged from events that unfolded under the administration of former President Yoon Suk-yeol—including the December 3 martial law and the June 3 early presidential election—Horror Is Show unfolds rhythmically through dense performances, interwoven with song. Even without invoking Jacques Rancière, who declared that the distribution of the sensible produced by art is itself already political, I believe that art diagnoses the currents of social change and captures the symptoms of public sentiment.
As both a swift social satire and a political satire, Horror Is Show seems to translate Han Kang’s question into theatre and pose it back to us:
Can theatre help the present?
Can theatre save the living?
— Jung Aeran, “Review: Seongbukdong Beedoolkee Theatre Horror Is Show,” Today’s Seoul Theatre, No. 176, TTIS, June 2025.
https://ttis.kr/2025/06/리뷰-성북동비둘기-2/
