Roberto Zucco

However, Succo the real man and Zucco the fictional character aren’t the preserve of the West. We find them in Africa, in Asia, in every country of the world and in Korea too. They are the universal figure of the solitary killer, the hero, in the tragic sense of the term. It is particularly interesting to look at this through a decentring, by working with actors and actresses who are not European, who speak Korean. Putting the play in a different context means we can free ourselves from the weight of the text’s realistic expectations, that are well known landmarks: the Paris metro, a train station, a kitchen, etc. But it is not because we don’t perform the play in a French environment that we should fall into another trap and set it in a Korean one.  

We want to signal the different locations where the action takes place using simple elements that allow the audience to immediately locate where the action is happening, regardless of the country where the show is performed. This would also solve the theatrical challenge inherent to the play: the quick scene changes. 

A key aspect of the set design came to us when we visited a Japanese prison used for Korean opponents. We were struck by the way the garden where prisoners would go on a stroll was shaped like a Panopticon, enabling one guard to watch every prisoner at the same time.  Roberto Zucco is an inverted Panopticon: he is the centre towards which all his victims converge, a sort of black hole that sucks up any life around him. 

Finally, we should also mention how impressed we have been with how physically at ease and agile in their performance the actresses and actors of the National Theater Company of Korea have been. These are two determining characteristics of Koltès’ play, which requires artists who are athletes of the heart and of the body. Every character is animated by the fear that the feline Zucco inspires in them. He is a genius of lightness and horror. The dazzling light coming from this black hole will eventually swallow the entirety of this bestial humanity.