The tenacity toward the stage of the two elder actors in their late 80s, who are about to turn 10 years old, continues into the new year.

Lee Soon-jae (88), the oldest active actor who failed this year, took on the challenge of directing a play for the first time in his 66 years of acting career.<The Seagull>, the representative work of Anton Chekhov, which is called the textbook of realism theater, is his directorial debut.

It is said that directing a Chekhov play has been on Lee Soon-jae’s long ‘bucket list’.<The Seagull>, one of Chekhov’s four major plays, depicts the tragic love and frustration of Trebleev, a young man who dreams of becoming a writer, and Nina, who dreams of becoming an actress.

Lee Soon-jae said that the main focus of directing was “to embody the spirit of Chekhov contained in the original work.”At a press call ahead of the opening ceremony last month, he said, “The Seagull is a work that preaches that young people have no future under the system at the time and that it needs to be changed.”It is a work written with compassion for the poor, the fall of the aristocratic society, and the will to reform society.”

The ‘seagull’ in the work is a symbol of a young man whose dreams are frustrated.“Like seagulls shot to death without being able to fly freely, the grand and beautiful dreams of young people are thwarted under the system created by the older generation.I am trying to deliver the message of Chekhov, who criticized that there is no future for young people under this system.”

Just as he said he tried to be faithful to the original work, on stage instead of bold directing experiments or flashy stage transitions, the actors’ plain acting stands out.It is a stage that contains the will of the director, “The play is an actor’s art, and this work is a work in which an actor must live.”

A large number of famous actors who are familiar with appearing in movies or dramas often appear.Lee Hang-na, So-jin So, Oh Man-seok, Kim Su-ro, Joo Ho-seong, Kang Seong-jin, Jin Ji-hee, Go Soo-hee, and Lee Gyeong-sil.Lee Soon-jae also appears in the role of ‘Thorin’, a landlord.The performance runs until February 5 at the Universal Arts Center in Seoul.

Shin Gu (87), an actor who has been active on the stage of last year’s plays <Last Session> and <The Two Popes>, has performed at the Daloreum Theater of the National Theater of Korea since last month in the play <My Heart Dances When I See a Rainbow in the Wide Sky> (Koo Tae-hwan). directing).This play tells the story of three generations of the owner’s family against the background of an old movie theater ‘Rainbow Cinema’ that is about to close in a small town in Chungcheong Province.It premiered in 2018 and won the grand prize at the 2020 Seoul Theater Festival.

Shin Gu played the role of Jo Byeong-sik, the first owner of Rainbow Cinema.Shingu said, “We live in a rapidly changing environment, and it seems that many things are missing in the midst of busy waves.”

He was hospitalized due to deteriorating health during last year’s <Last Session>, but his return to the stage is two months after <The Two Popes>.The old actor, who said that theater was his ‘vocation’, responded as follows when asked about his health at a press call last month.“I got a call after I finished <The Two Popes> safely, but I thought I could make it happen, so I took part.I do it because I want to, hee hee.”