The Seoul Performing Arts Company is staging "Baekbeom," an original musical drama, to mark the 40th anniversary of its founding and the 150th anniversary of the birth of independence leader Kim Ku. Rather than simply retelling the life of a historical figure, the work reinterprets the nation and the communal values Kim envisioned through a contemporary lens.
The company said at a production news conference at the Seoul Arts Center on the 21st that the show will run from Nov. 14 to 21 at the Haeoreum Grand Theater of the National Theater of Korea. Son Jae-o, the company's director general and artistic director, described it as "a work that invites today's audiences to reconsider the nation Kim Ku dreamed of, the power of high culture he spoke about, and his hope for a community united beyond division."
The production is based on the musical of the same name that premiered in 2020, but the script and staging have been substantially reworked. The most notable change is that no single actor is assigned to play Kim. Multiple performers take on the role of Kim — known by his pen name Baekbeom — regardless of gender or age, expressing his convictions and emotions. The focus rests less on the narrative of an individual hero than on the voices of ordinary people who moved history.
Director Jung Tae-young said the show "has been reborn as an entirely new work, completely different from the premiere." He explained that "the empty space shaped like the taegeuk — the red-and-blue swirl on Korea's national flag — at the center of the stage is filled with the movements and sounds of Baekbeom and the common people, conveying the idea that people are the center of the nation." He added that "the scenes are organically connected in conveying Kim's belief that every ordinary person is the master of the nation."
The prominent use of rap is the production's defining musical feature. Drawing on "Baekbeom Ilji," Kim's memoir, the score combines hip-hop and rap to convey the energy of resistance. Composer Won Mi-sol said rap serves as "material for a cry that directly delivers suppressed voices and the energy of resistance."
The news conference also touched on the question of relocating the company out of the capital. Son, who took office in July, said "nothing has been decided at this point, and there are no concrete plans." Choi In-hyung, head of the company's performers division, said "what matters is not a simple physical relocation but preserving the history and creative processes built up over the past 40 years."