‘Gok-IV’: Unearthly Cries for Survival : Theater 1981 Offers Women’s Viewpoint

Three women in Korean-style robes writhe and perform rites of supplication against a projected backdrop of violent images of war, while wailing unearthly cries of grief known as the “Gok.”

These primordial sounds and movements suggest the terror of nuclear annihilation. Grotowski-like falls to the floor are slow and ritualistic, bespeaking a world-view that the performers say is informed by their distinctly feminine outlook.

These women are members of the Korean-American performance group Theater 1981, preparing to perform “Gok IV: The Death of the Earth,” written by Ja Kyong Rhee and directed by Ik Tae Rhee (the group’s only male) at the Wallenboyd Theater beginning tonight and continuing Saturday, next Friday and July 23.

“Although we don’t have a particular nuclear image in mind,” says Hye Sook Park (Korean-born, American by marriage), who plays the central role of Mother Earth and is Theater 1981’s organizer, “the theme of our work is always the same: war, destruction and the woman’s point of view.”

While Park plays down the radical political content of her group’s imagistic movement-based performance, saying “it’s about the beauty of wailing,” there’s no question to her that “a female and also an Oriental point of view” pervades a vision that is informed by “death and destruction.”

In fact, she adds that her own femininity, coupled with her identity as a Korean-American, provides her with insights that enable her to deal with ruination from an unusual vantage point. “We talk about death and destruction, but in a beautiful way,” she explains, “Our point is to try to make people feel the conflict” between subject and treatment.

Western audiences, according to Park, will also find conflict--or at least surprise--in the discovery of “shamanism” and feminism as bedfellows in “Gok.” “But in Korea,” she reminds, “shamans are usually women.”

While the men do the fighting, these female shamans must “do the actual crying for the dead souls, talking to the souls and letting them go or comforting them,” as well as administering to “entire villages” of the living, including “the mothers who have to send the men to war.”

Park, who sees herself primarily as a painter (her drawings will be on display in the theater foyer), was attracted to performance because of her need to collaborate with other women and Korean-American artists in expressing their shared concerns.

“None of us have studied Korean singing or dancing,” Park explains, “But we have some feeling about these things because we’re Korean women.”

“There’s a sound I never learned,” she continues, “but it’s different from any Western sound. I can’t tell you why I make that sound, but it comes from within me without any lessons.”

She also shares with her fellow performers a feminist desire to remain free of “boundaries of social system or life style.” “I have many shaman girlfriends--they don’t particularly get along well with men--who are very independent,” she confides, “and highly interested in universal beliefs and the world in a metaphysical way.”

“We’re like monks in a modern age,” she explains, “with red lipstick and modern clothes, wanting to be free in our beliefs.”

So strong is this desire that she and Gee Won Kim, who plays the Moon in “Gok IV,” have even discussed new ways in which they might pursue art and belief.

“We talk about doing performance as a life style, every day,” Park recounts, “so that when we perform we wouldn’t have to practice so much, just have a routine like Korean old men who get up every morning and go to the park and recite poems.”

As feminists, the members of Theater 1981 show a sensitivity to the plight of all oppressed people, and in particular Korea’s history of imperialist occupations. They want, therefore, to make the Korean identification strong.

“It’s important for us not to be seen as Japanese,” Park offers. “Western people see Oriental people all together. They don’t have a standard of what ‘Korean’ is supposed to be and they are getting tired of (images of) Orientals who only work hard and do traditional things.”

But the most important way in which feminism and humanism conjoin for Theater 1981 is in the belief that this feminine-Korean force, once empowered, can help the world.

“Throughout our history, we’ve always been attacked by people,” Park says, “but we never attacked others, so a different soul developed within us--like a woman’s--one that can contribute to the world’s soul.”