The Original Emotion Preserved... Four Years of Work Musical 'Almond'

Photo by Live Co., Ltd.

[Asia Economy Reporter Seomideum] Son Won-pyeong's novel Almond has been reborn as a musical. The bestseller Almond, which has sold 900,000 copies domestically and been published in 20 countries overseas, is now being presented as a musical after more than four years of production.

The musical focuses on faithfully dramatizing the novel as much as possible. At the press call held on the 8th at COEX Artium, director Kim Tae-hyung stated, “We tried to stay true to the original work,” and added, “We aimed to expand the imagination that only a musical, combining music and choreography, can show.” This was also the reason why the original author, who had rejected numerous film adaptation requests, agreed to the musical adaptation.

The story depicts Yoon-jae (played by Moon Tae-yu and Hong Seung-an), who has an abnormality in the almond-shaped amygdala in the brain that governs emotions, and his journey to find emotions. Through the process where his mother and grandmother are attacked (without receiving help from those around them), it delivers a harsh lesson that even if one has empathy, it is no different from not having it if one does not act on it, reminding us of the true value of empathy. Director Kim Tae-hyung introduced the work as “Ultimately, it is a piece that questions what it truly means for us to empathize with others’ emotions and whether we can genuinely empathize with others.”

Actors Moon Tae-yu and Hong Seung-an, who portrayed Yoon-jae, who cannot feel emotions, struggled with restrained acting. Unlike other performances that maximize the six emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure, love, and desire, they had to present a restrained performance that hides these feelings. Actor Hong Seung-an said, “I acted with the mindset of just watching the co-actor who is emotionally expressive.” Actor Moon Tae-yu also recalled, “I struggled during rehearsals because emotions surfaced, and I tried to feel only as the text described.”

On the other hand, Gon-i (played by Lee Hae-jun and Jo Hwan-ji), a boy full of anger toward the world after being kidnapped as a child and wandering through adoption, rejection, and juvenile detention centers, struggled to release his emotions. About half of his lines include swear words, and he confessed, “It was not easy to pour out emotions to show the full anger of Gon-i.”

In the novel, since the story is told in the first person centered on Yoon-jae, the surrounding characters are somewhat objectified, but in the musical, each actor is a protagonist. A representative character is Idora, a girl who dreams of becoming a track and field athlete and is nicknamed “Crazy.” Idora’s charm is purposelessness. She simply wants to be an athlete because she loves the feeling of running. This charm contributes to Yoon-jae’s emotional recovery, and actors Lim Chan-min and Song Young-min, who play Idora, said, “That is Idora’s charm,” and added, “That is why we thought they are drawn to each other and can heal one another.”

There are many running scenes, and the impact of COVID-19 made acting difficult. However, Idora said, “The director told me to freely express the difficulty by breathing heavily, so I am doing that.”

The work is a beautiful harmony of characters and actors with different charms. For audiences who have read the original, it evokes nostalgia for the original work, and for those who see the performance first, it arouses curiosity about the original. The performance runs until May 1 at COEX Artium in Samseong-dong.