Is Modernized Pansori Political? On Lee Jaram’s Ukchuk-Ga(Mother Courage and her Children)

Abstract

An examination of Brecht’s Mother Courage and her children, in the modernized pansori version by Lee Jaram—adapter, composer, singer, and performer; Jaram channels all aspects of the performing arts in one: we all laugh and cry at the same time, at least internally. She embodied Brecht’s figure of the loving but guilty mother.

One had best know the rules of classical pansori to appreciate its musical and vocal sophistication. And yet an ordinary audience of non-specialists, Westerners, for example, can be profoundly affected by the vocal technique, so different from the everyday uses of the voice. The grain of the husky voice resonates deeply in every body.

I was expecting a lot from this adaptation of Brecht’s Mother Courage by Lee Jaram. I was not disappointed, thanks to the power and sensitivity of the interpretation. Like every spectator in the world confronted with this figure of the mother and her daughter Katrin, I was moved by the characters both embodied and borne by the singer.

I was nevertheless somewhat ashamed to go along with it, under the influence of extreme emotiveness, and far from the political message that Brecht, always in vain, endeavored to instill in us. It was impossible to resist this delicious sentimental drift.

That day, I sensed that emotions are anthropological universals that unite all human beings. Alongside these universals, ethical and political reflection must ceaselessly be constructed and deconstructed by all the citizens of the world, if only to keep emotions in check and subject to reason.