For this assignment, I tried to focus on a topic that I felt that although was more frequently discussed in the media, the topic has not yet been regarded as a mainstream area of discussion. I drew my inspiration from a video I had seen not long ago, detailing the deceptive nature of the way the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) presents itself not just to the rest of the world, but to its own people, as well as the striking and frightening effects of restriction on free speech.
Act One
The first scene is bright and festive. Being the daredevil he is, Peter boards a flight with his best friend Thomas to North Korea. While most of his friends ridiculed him for such a dimwitted choice of destination for Spring break, Peter managed to convince Thomas to travel to the world’s last true dictatorship and rid himself of the inconsistent portrayals of the country by local media. When the plane begins to land in the heart of Pyongyang, Peter looks out the window, and to his surprise, observes a massive crowd of people. As Thomas and Peter exit the airplane, they are shocked by the largely unexpected parade. For several football fields from the airport, thousands of North Korean civilians, as well as soldiers, join in the festival, with prodigious amounts of food, music, and tourist activities.
Notified that their luggage will be taken to their hotel rooms, the two boys begin to walk through the parade, whispering to each other in bewilderment, and exchanging smiles with local citizens who each seem to be sporting the exact same frozen-in-time, ear-to-ear smile on their faces. In this scene, loud music is playing making Peter and Thomas’s comments to each other inaudible. Towards the end, however, as the music begins to fade, Peter begins to ask Thomas “Isn’t this parade kind of strange? We just got here and it’s as if they already want us to love it without us even seeing it.” As he makes the interjection, the music suddenly stops, and the boys continue to walk through the parade, receiving mysterious yet daunting looks from military members as they walk by.
Walking through the rest of the parade, the boys begin to take an interest in the gift shops and souvenirs. As they approach the gift stands, besides keychains of different North Korean monuments, they notice little action figures resembling who they recognized as the leader of the DPRK, Kim Jong Un. Pointing out his chubby stature, Thomas laughs and buds Peter in the shoulder as he points to the funny little depiction of NK’s leader. While they continue to chuckle, a group of soldiers who overheard their remarks about the leader starts to approach them, giving off a sense of hostility. Right before they reach Peter and Thomas’s vicinity, a native girl from the parade runs up to the two boys, and, with a somewhat unnaturally forced grinning countenance, asks the boys to walk away, and refrain from laughing.
The night after the parade, the boys are led to their hotel rooms and are very generously treated to dinner by the hotel staff.
Act Two
In the next act, Thomas and Peter participate in a tour, accompanied by soldiers, where the final destination is Mansu Hill Grand Monument in Pyongyang. As they reach the monument, two grandiose statues come into view of deceased North Korean leaders, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. In this act, the tour guide talks to the tourists about the Supreme Leader, and invites them to a prayer session, as residents of the DPRK are required to do regularly. As the rest of the tourists engage in the prayer in front of the statue, Thomas and Peter are both dumbfounded and try to remain hidden among the group, in their refusal to participate. As the group prayer continues, the boys begin to whisper to each other about the surreality of their current surroundings. While the tour guide continues to lead the session, the two military men accompanying the group begin to take notice of the boys’ increasingly loud and uncoordinated whispering. Finally, Peter utters to Thomas “This is so stupid, who are we even praying to,” and the following events begin to change their perspective on North Korea.
Throughout the remainder of the scene, as the rest of the tourists are accompanied to the nearest cafe, Thomas and Peter are stopped by soldiers and arrested. During the few seconds that they realize they had violated a code of conduct, there was no talking, and very dissonant music plays. The boys are put in cuffs and beaten before they are shoved in a military truck, and driven to a state prison, where they are put on trial, to which the outcome lies either in a jail sentence, or decades spent in political prison.
At the end of this act, the boys find themselves behind bars, unaware of the length of their sentence, or even a clear conviction that landed them in prison. To their surprise, they recognized a familiar face in the cell in front of them. The girl from the parade, who had warned them about poking fun at the supreme leader was sitting, scrunched up and muttering. The audience finds out that she was imprisoned because of her brief association with Thomas and Peter.
Lighting, Music, Stage Set, Costumes
Since Act One begins on a relatively positive note as both Thomas and Peter wander through an unexpected national parade, the music played will be festive, occasionally interjected by melancholy bits to accompany the moments in which both characters start to poke fun at the president of NK, while soldiers surrounding them start to become suspicious of the two, and walk closer to them, suggesting a confrontation. Consistent with the original theme of festivity, lighting will be bright in this act, since the parade is meant to showcase the positivity of North Korea, while the political agenda of the military men proves otherwise. The lighting in act two will definitely be dimmer, and expressive of tragedy and confusion, given that both characters unexpectedly ended up in prison for merely uttering a sincere comment on the unconventional situation they were in. The music will follow the same theme and will incorporate pieces with sudden changes in dynamics consistent with the tragic culmination of both Peter and Thomas in prison. While I thought the rotating set of The Magic Flute was quite innovative, I feel as though handmade props would be more properly indicative of the poverty-stricken conditions of those suffering under the North Korean regime. I’ve read articles indicating that grocery stores have been found to be empty, and many people struggle to put food on the table, so a depiction of poverty would definitely be appropriate for this performance. In terms of costumes, I believe this opera would be more relatable to the average viewer if Thomas and Peter were dressed in casual style outfits, maybe a hoodie and a pair of jeans. The soldiers would be in soldier uniforms, while parade members would be dressed in uniform casual clothing, as would the girl who ended up in prison with T&P.
While I am by not an expert on North Korean affairs, by any stretch of the imagination, my intention for this opera would be for people to witness some of the political crimes that people are prosecuted for in the DPRK, and encourage a general appreciation for the first amendment; the group of sentences in a document that allow us to say whatever we want, how we want to, when we want to.
Ronald Osherov
