Interview with Park Hae-soo as Mephisto in the play ‘Faust’
Actor Park Hae-soo expressed his feelings about returning to the stage after 5 years with the play 'Faust'.
Hae-soo Park met with Ten Asia at the LG Arts Center Seoul in Gangseo-gu, Seoul on April 6 and told various stories related to the play 'Faust'.
Park Hae-soo, who was active in the dramas 'Six Flying Dragons', 'Prison Playlist', the Netflix series 'Squid Game' and 'Suriname', and the Netflix movies 'Time to Hunt', 'Yacha', and 'Ghost', is back in five years. I returned with the play ‘Faust’.
'Faust', which opened on March 31, is a reinterpretation of the play completed over 60 years by the great German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Through Faust's imperfect actions and choices, direction and inspiration for an imperfect life are presented.
In the play, Park Hae-soo plays Mephisto. Mephisto is a character who brings pleasure to Faust and will do anything to bring about his destruction and corruption.
Park Hae-soo, who debuted in the play 'Annapurna' in 2007, chose 'Faust' as his return to the stage after five years. He said, "It's not that I've been patient, but as you know, I've been very busy. My body couldn't bear it in the meantime, so I performed 'Kim Joo-won's Four Gentlemen_Season of Life', a performance commemorating the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Jeongdong Theater with ballerina Kim Joo-won. Thankfully, many media outlets visited me. “I got married and had a child. Five years have passed by quickly,” he said.
Park Hae-soo said, "Before the movie 'Crime City' (directed by Kang Yun-seong) came out, I talked about various things with senior Jin Seon-gyu. I had a hard time studying adapting to the media, so I told my brother about it. But my brother said, 'When performing, at least 5 He said, ‘Wasn’t it difficult for more than a year?’, ‘Shouldn’t you endure that time?’ It was a time when I had been working a lot in broadcasting media. I worked hard with the thought that the stage would appreciate it more if I gained a certain level of recognition and solidified my position. Movie , I met a lot of good people while experiencing the drama,” he said with a laugh.
Park Hae-soo said, "'Faust' came at the right time. I have dreamed of playing the role of Mephisto for a long time. I also really like classics. In fact, it is difficult to approach because it is a classic, but director Yang Jeong-woong reached out to me. It was probably at this time. “I think it was appropriate. He said he had been looking for a piece to work with when the LG Arts Center Seoul opened around the middle of last year. Since then, the story has been coming out and the company gave OK,” he explained.
In addition, Park Hae-soo said, "Don't we all recognize a world where evil is not seen as evil? The distinction between good and evil has become blurred and ambiguous. The time has come for me to sympathize with this as well. Personally, if an actor is a person, it is a work with a message. There is also something I want to convey to the audience. Isn’t evil clear in the classics? I was curious about the beginning of evil people. I was curious about how they would degenerate. Regarding that, I wanted to deliver a message and the ability to distinguish between good and evil to the audience. "The classic work 'Faust' is written in written form. However, Mephisto's lines are more relevant now, even though they were written 200 years ago. They are obvious stories, but that part is strange."
Meanwhile, the play 'Faust' starring Park Hae-soo will be performed until April 29.
Kang Min-kyung, Ten Asia reporter kkk39@tenasia.co.kr