Yoo Dong-geun, “A theater stage that came back after 30 years, it feels like the birth of my first child.”
This play is like the birth of my first child to me.”
Actor Yoo Dong-geun (66) expressed his overwhelming feelings about returning to the stage for the first time in more than 30 years with the representative play “Red” by the performance production company Sinci Company.
“It’s been more than 30 years since I played,” Yoo Dong-geun said at a press demonstration for the play “Red” held at the Seoul Arts Center’s Free Small Theater in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the 28th. “I put up a poster in Myeong-dong when I first did the play “I remembered a lot of old memories of living in detention and being busy cleaning and running errands on the stage,” he said.
Yoo Dong-geun debuted as a theater actor in 1977. In 1980, he was selected as a TBC 23rd open recruitment talent and expanded his career to dramas. He returned to the stage after a long time playing the real-life painter Mark Rothko in the play “Red,” which opened at the Seoul Arts Center’s Free Small Theater on the 20th.
Through the stage, I feel the dignity of performing arts again. Yoo Dong-geun said, “When I return home from the performance, I feel the destiny of the stage again,” adding, “I also hope that pure theater actors will have more time to do better works on stage than now.”
The reason why I chose the play again was the junior actor Jung Bo-seok. After watching “Red” starring Jung Bo-seok in 2019, he was captivated by the charm of the work. Yoo Dong-geun said, “I was so immersed in the charm that Jung Bo-seok threw into the audience, and I was also attracted to the lines written by writer John Logan,” adding, “Park Myung-sung, producer of Cincinnati Company, gave me courage and decided to appear.”
Red’ is a work that deals with the “Seagram Building Mural Incident” by Mark Rothko (1903-1970), a painter representing abstract expressionism. It is an incident in which Mark Rothko returned the down payment a year later and received the mural he painted at a luxury restaurant in the Seagram Building in New York in 1958. The work unravels the context of this incident through a conversation between Mark Rothko and the fictional character Ken.
Jung Bo-seok will also take turns on stage as Mark Rothko along with Yoo Dong-geun. This is the third time that Jung Bo-seok has appeared in “Red” after performances in 2015 and 2019. “The biggest attraction of Red is that it talks about life based on art,” he said. “It tells the story of people who misunderstand that only the truth they have learned will last forever, and forget that they will also be the past.”
“Red” swept six categories, including the 64th Tony Award for Best Picture in 2010. It premiered in Korea in 2011 with a licensed performance by the Sinci Company. A total of five previous season performances recorded an average audience share of 95%. Actors Kang Seung-ho and Yeon Joon-seok will star as Ken. It will be performed until February 19th next year.