Director deals with knowledge that he may have caused father's death by defecting
It is the most unlikely subject for a musical since Springtime for Hitler.
Yoduk Story is a grisly tale of life in a North Korean prison camp, seen through the eyes of an actress imprisoned for the actions of her father. How it came to be staged is a worthy tale in its own right.
Named after a real-life prison camp, Yoduk Story is the creation of North Korean refugee-turned-director Jung Sung-san. To see his work performed, Jung, 37, has had to deal with hostile South Korean secret services, a funding shortfall that forced him to pledge his kidney against a loan, and the knowledge that he may have caused the death of his father, the inspiration for the musical which begins a three-week run this week.
Jung's father was stoned to death in a prison camp, following his son's defection in 1995. Under North Korean law, family members are punished for their relatives' crimes. 'Before they killed my father, the people who ordered his death ... they told him, 'You are dying because of your son. There are bound to be informers here, let him know', defectors later told me.'
Jung says his father's death was the turning point to his directionless life in Seoul. Until then, the former student of Pyongyang Drama and Movie College said he did not feel particularly hostile towards the North Korean regime and had moments when he regretted defecting.
With a soaring score and stirring melodies, the musical makes allusions to the cult of personality in the communist state, to North Korea's desperate food shortages and a much-criticised human-rights record. The setting for the musical, Yoduk prison camp, has also featured in another work in recent years. Another North Korean defector, Kang Chol-hwan gave a graphic account of his decade in Yoduk in The Aquariums of Pyongyang.