LIGHTNOVELONLINE Episode 160 - Acting Demonstration
The members of the New Star theater troupe went back down to the basement.
“Have you ever acted before?”
“Of course not. Obviously not. Have you?”
To Junsoo’s question, Seong-sik unexpectedly nodded.
“…Huh? You have?”
“Yeah. Don’t you remember that weird thing we did at the school festival in middle school?”
Junsoo tilted his head.
“I don’t know. We weren’t that close back then.”
“We did some shoddy play about preventing school violence.”
Yeon-woo, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, spoke up.
“Apart from your acting experience, have you watched many performances?”
“Plays? I saw one with Yuri noona. But it was when we had just started dating, so honestly, I don’t remember anything about the content.”
“I don’t even have that much experience.”
Yeon-woo stroked his chin and then climbed up onto the stage.
“Then sit in the audience seats. It would be laughable if someone heard that you’re now a member of a theater troupe but have never seen a play. Yu-han, can you help me out?”
“Okay.”
At Yeon-woo’s words, Jin Yu-han nodded and came up on stage.
The rest of the members sat down, their eyes sparkling.
“Oh! Are you going to give us a demonstration?”
“Hey, if you think about it, how much would this cost?”
“That’s right. We couldn’t see this even if we paid for it.”
All three had expectant looks on their faces, but Kim Joo-hyung was the most excited.
“Wow, I get to see this again.”
He was just a college student who liked movies, but what made Kim Joo-hyung interested in acting and even write a play script was the performance these two on stage had put on in the past.
Jin Yu-han, who had climbed onto the stage, approached Yeon-woo.
“But we don’t have a prepared script. Are we going to improvise?”
Yeon-woo grinned in response.
“We do have a prepared script. Let’s do ‘Dayendor’. Just without the singing parts.”
“Ah. Then that part we did before?”
At Jin Yu-han’s words, Yeon-woo recalled the part they had performed when he visited to cheer them on.
At that time, Yeon-woo had played the role of ‘Ezel’, the workers’ representative, and Jin Yu-han had played ‘Shane’, a 1930s Detroit mafia character.
The character ‘Shane’, played by Jin Yu-han, had cursed industrialization after witnessing his father’s tragic death and forcibly occupied the factory where ‘Ezel’, the role Yeon-woo briefly played, worked.
The scene where they clashed, putting their lives on the line after that.
Yeon-woo had perfectly executed the original’s ‘Five Steps’ in that part.
It wouldn’t be a problem to do that part again, but since they were doing this for fun, it might be good to try a different part.
“Hmm, since we’re doing this, shall we try a different part?”
“Huh? But you haven’t seen the script for other parts.”
Yeon-woo lifted the corners of his mouth.
“I watched your premiere performance a few days ago. And I’m a ‘Dayendor’ maniac, so I can do other parts too. Of course, the lines might be a bit different from what’s written in the script, but let’s improvise based on the content.”
“Really? That sounds fun too. Which part should we do?”
Jin Yu-han was currently the lead actor actually performing in that musical, so any part would be fine for him.
After thinking for a while, he couldn’t come up with a suitable scene.
“But if we exclude that scene, there aren’t many scenes with two men interacting, are there? It’s all mostly Jane and Shane, or Ezel and Jane.”
At Jin Yu-han’s words, Yeon-woo, who had been recalling the content of ‘Dayendor’, immediately thought of one part.
“Then how about this? Jane’s final moment.”
Jin Yu-han tilted his head.
“Huh? How can we do that scene when we’re both men? We don’t have Jane.”
‘Jane’s final moment’ was a meaningful scene for Yeon-woo.
It was the part that made him always choose the right terrace seat in his previous life when watching ‘Dayendor’.
– In ‘Dayendor’, the female protagonist, despairing over her love, stabs herself with a knife and breathes her last. At that moment, her expression shows a fleeting glimpse of every human emotion. It’s awe-inspiring to watch that expression from the highest seat on the right terrace.
This was something Yeon-woo from his past life had once said to Han Hae-woon from his past life.
The highest seat on the right terrace was a tip for fully appreciating this scene, and it was also because Han Hae-woon remembered this story that it became an opportunity to find himself in his current life.
The problem is, as Jin Yu-han pointed out, this scene is for ‘Jane’, who is the younger sister of ‘Shane’, the role Jin Yu-han is currently playing, and also the female lead.
“How about changing Jane to a man? Making it a conflict between brothers instead of siblings.”
Seemingly intrigued by Yeon-woo’s suggestion, a spark of interest flashed in Jin Yu-han’s eyes.
“I’ve never thought of that before. Hmm, that’s interesting?”
“Let’s just call Jane’s name ‘Alex’, and replace the original male lead Ezel with a female lead named ‘Angel’.”
Then Jin Yu-han nodded as if something had occurred to him and added his opinion.
“Oh. Then in that last confrontation part…”
“Okay. Then let’s replace the knife in the last part with a gun, and I’ll start…”
The eyes of Yeon-woo and Jin Yu-han, who had exchanged ideas in an instant, lit up simultaneously.
“Alright, then I’ll start. I’ve changed a part of ‘Dayendor’ slightly to fit a play.”
At Yeon-woo’s words, the friends in the audience nodded with expectant faces.
Meanwhile, Jin Yu-han brought a stool chair and sat down in the center of the stage.
And Yeon-woo took a deep breath, stretched his hand towards the air as if opening a door, and then approached Jin Yu-han.
With those two simple actions, it naturally suggested that the place where the two were now was some kind of indoor space.
Jin Yu-han started with a solid projection of his voice.
“Alex. Have you finally come to your senses?”
Hearing the first line, the friends in the audience tilted their heads in confusion.
‘Who is Alex?’
All three of them had just recently seen Jin Yu-han’s performance.
As such, they still vividly remembered the content, but a character named Alex didn’t appear.
Without responding to Jin Yu-han’s words, Yeon-woo opened his mouth with vacant eyes.
“Brother. Do you remember Mr. Fisher who lived next door when we were young?”
“Fisher? You mean that doctor? Dr. Fisher?”
Then the friends realized what kind of situation this was.
‘Talking about Mr. Fisher is the last part of the female lead Jane’s role.’
In the original, it was a scene between Shane, the role Jin Yu-han played, and his younger sister Jane, who was the female lead of the play.
The scene where she, resenting her mafia older brother who killed the factory worker she loved, starts by handing him his usual drink laced with poison.
‘So instead of the younger sister Jane, it’s become the younger brother Alex?’
As the friends focused, Yeon-woo opened his mouth again.
“Yeah. We used to play catch often when we were young. I ran into him by chance at a bar on Kercheval St. the other day. He seemed proud to see how successful you’ve become.”
“Really? But why are you suddenly talking about him?”
But Alex continued with his own words as if he wasn’t interested in what Shane was saying.
“But you know what that man said? He’s researching the brain inside this skull, and he says love is just a chemical reaction caused by hormones. He says it’s all an illusion. All just a mirage. Just a desire that occurs like eating, drinking, and sleeping.”
After finishing the long line in one breath, Yeon-woo looked at Jin Yu-han for the first time.
“What do you think? Do you think so too, brother?”
Receiving that gaze, Jin Yu-han was surprised once again inwardly.
‘I thought this last time too, but the lines Yeon-woo delivers have a unique rhythm different from others. It’s like there’s some kind of meter that sticks right in your ear.’
Of course, that difference was also conveyed to the friends in the audience, as they had seen Jin Yu-han’s performance.
Jin Yu-han, who had paused for a moment, picked up the dialogue again.
“I was wondering what you were talking about, showing up suddenly, but are you trying to talk about that Angel woman or whatever again? The feelings you’re experiencing now are just stemming from that. Fisher said the right thing.”
Then Alex, having heard his brother’s words, burst into loud laughter.
Hahaha─.
Yeon-woo’s performance of that scene was like a ‘madman’.
As Yeon-woo laughed loudly with his mouth wide open, looking into space, making his Adam’s apple vibrate, an unapproachable charisma seemed to emanate from him.
And then, shifting his gaze, Yeon-woo looked straight at Jin Yu-han.
Naturally overwhelmed by that atmosphere, Jin Yu-han stood up from the chair he was sitting on.
‘…Huh? Why did I stand up?’
He had no intention of standing up until this short performance was over.
Overwhelmed by the atmosphere, he had stood up without realizing it.
And Yeon-woo opened his mouth again.
“What’s the big deal about one little death? It was all just a sacrifice of the small for the greater good. Is that what you want to say, brother?”
Clearly it was Yeon-woo speaking, but the voice and tone that flowed from his mouth were eerily similar to ‘Shane’ that Jin Yu-han had performed in the original show.
The sense of dissonance coming from the versatile changes in tone even made the friends watching from the audience tense up.
Jin Yu-han was also momentarily overwhelmed, but the lines he had practiced countless times were ingrained, so the next line flowed out automatically.
“Yeah, you dimwit. I told you, didn’t I? We need to become strong. I said that to survive in this jungle called Detroit, we need to become wolves without blood or tears.”
And shaking his head as if in disdain, Jin Yu-han continued.
“So what? Love? Let’s not waste time on such worthless things. There’s a lot you need to help me with.”
And Yeon-woo took a step forward.
The facial expressions Yeon-woo was about to perform along with the lines were, in the original, meant to be delivered while looking up diagonally into space.
That’s why it was said to be best viewed from the right terrace.
But since there was no right terrace in this small theater, Yeon-woo began his lines looking at the friends in the audience.
“You always said that people would all die because of the machines made in the factory. But now I think I finally understand what you meant.”
As he spoke those lines, Yeon-woo’s face changed in sequence from emptiness to anger, from anger to compassion.
Faced with these raw, unrefined emotions from the stage, the friends in the audience unconsciously opened their mouths.
Again, Yeon-woo’s expression changed to a solemn face that had made some kind of decision.
“Machines only move for their purpose. Machines without emotions are dangerous. That’s what you always used to say.”
Then he swiftly turned his body to face Jin Yu-han directly.
“A machine made in the factory of competitive society. Just like you.”
What Alex’s brother Shane had ultimately destroyed by blowing up the factory wasn’t just the woman he loved. It was the last thread of his own humanity.
He made a motion of pulling out a gun from behind his back and pulled the trigger.
Bang─!
It was the sound of Yeon-woo stamping his foot on the floor, but the friends who were now completely immersed in the play flinched greatly, feeling as if a gunshot had rung out from somewhere.
Then, as if it were a lie, Yeon-woo turned around again and smiled faintly.
“It’s over.”
Acting is about telling lies, but ultimately it’s a work of convincing those who watch it.
In this brief moment, the friends in the audience were completely convinced.
To the point of forgetting the space they were in and becoming momentarily immersed.
They had seen countless movies and dramas until now, but they were overwhelmed by the vividness felt right before their eyes.
Kim Junsoo, who had barely come to his senses, opened his mouth with a dazed feeling.
“…So this is what acting is.”
At those words, Jin Yu-han on the stage slightly shook his head.
The friends were mistaken, this wasn’t ordinary ‘acting’.
It was just ‘Ryu Yeon-woo’.