It's a pity the word "hybrid" has acquired pejorative overtones, because that's exactly what this delightful production offers. Adapted and directed by Tae-Suk for Seoul's Mokwha Repertory Company and presented as part of the international festival's Asian programme, it mixes Shakespeare's narrative with elements of fifth-century Korean history and traditional dance-drama, and proves yet again the benefits of cultural cross-fertilisation.
What instantly strikes one is the lightness and wit with which Oh Tae-Suk handles the familiar story. The Prospero-like King Zilzi, immersed in Taoist magic and exiled by a rival monarch, arranges the initial shipwreck partly out of revenge and partly because he believes it's high time his 15-year-old daughter "met somebody". And when the Miranda equivalent is asked by her kingly suitor if she is pure and true, she replies with heavy irony "this is a desert island". But the wit extends to the visual ideas. Caliban becomes a two-headed creature equipped with a kangaroo-like pouch containing his own captious elder brother. Ariel is turned into a busy shaman priestess who seems as much the instigator as the executrix of Zilzi's magic. And the island is heavily populated with animals who are finally transformed, at their own request, into north-flying ducks.
Yet, for all the humour of the treatment, this is no mere island fling but a production that gets across Shakespeare's essential points. Indeed the protagonist, in finally conceding "I am the guilty party", is far more self-accusatory than any conventional Prospero. The yearning for liberation is also vividly expressed both by Ariel's impatience and by the sudden severing of Caliban's two bodies. And when Zilzi finally passes his magic fan on to a spectator in the front row, a bond is struck between actors and audience that deliberately echoes Peter Brook's A Midsummer Night's Dream. In fact the whole production, with its Brookish bamboo canes, Shakespearean plot and Korean music and dance, is an eloquent testament to the fusion of the best of east and west.