I am planning on writing about Hamlet next. Like Ben Hur, while the major plot events remain the same, there are still some differences. After all, Shakespeare's five-act play, Hamlet, has been cut down into a two-hour, two-act musical.
It was played earlier this year at the D-Cube Art Centre at Sindorim Station (Lines ONE and TWO).
I really do apologise profoundly for the lateness of this post. Ben Hur successfully ended last Sunday, much to both the happiness (for a successful first run) and sadness (that it's over) of the cast, the crew and the fans.
So without further ado, the last half of Ben Hur.
After the chariot race, Judah goes to find Messala amongst the injured. We can hear him before we see him because, as usual, he's screaming like a spoiled child. However, this time there is sufficient cause as he yells, "I can't see a damn thing!" Yes, that's right. His literal fall from grace caused him to be blinded. Once on stage, he seems to sense Judah's presence. "Wait a moment. My friend is there. Stop! I said, 'Stop!'" They stop ... and let him fall out of the stretcher he had been carried in. He wobbles up and turns away from Judah. He stands up straight, laughing, "Who's this? If it isn't today's winner and my old childhood friend, Judah Ben Hur?" "Where are they? Where's my family?" Judah asks, dead serious. Messala realises he's made a mistake in the direction he's facing and quickly turns around on guard. "You're family? They're lepers. Your mother and sister caught leprosy." He sings a final reprise ("나 메셀라" / "I'm Messala") before he suddenly attacks with his dagger-sword. Judah, whose eyes work properly, has no problem fending off his attack. Messala backs off, laughing like a maniac, and uses his body as his dagger-sword's sheath. Messala's last words are, "Congrats, my friend," before dying. "No ... no! No!!" screams Judah. Messala's body is dumped on the gurney as Judah rushes over to where the lepers are.
As Judah tries to check each leper he passes to see if it's his family, Esther's voice suddenly rings out, "Master, you can't be here!" Judah looks confused. "Esther? Why are you here?" Realisation starts to hit him, "And why can't a son search for his mother?" Esther confesses her knowledge of his family being here. He wants to know why she didn't tell him they were alive and here. She tells him that she promised his mother that he wouldn't tell him that they were here and that Judah's mother didn't want him to know. "That doesn't make any sense," he responds. "Master, please!" She starts to sing ("희망은 사라져" / "Hope Is Gone") and physically fights with him (or "fights" in his case) in order to prevent him from going further into the lepers' colony. Eventually she grabs his sword and threatens to kill herself with it. She gets distracted while singing, and he easily wrestles it from her grasp. When his sister rushes out and says, "I heard my brother," Esther pushes him down behind a well, out of his sister's sight. His mother follows his sister, "Do you miss your brother that much?" "Yes," she responds sadly. "I miss him, too, but that person ... you know." "Yes," she says again. Judah inadvertently makes a noise, which his mother hears. "Who's there?" Esther stands up. "Is it you, Esther?" "Yes, it's me. That person has come back. Let's go." "Wait a little bit. We'll be right out," his mother answers. Both Judah's mother and sister go back into the leper colony, and while they're gone, Esther sighs out of frustration, "Master, please!" His family is already ready to go, "Esther, let's go." "Yes, after you." Esther continues to look over her shoulder at Judah, silently begging him to stay hidden. He watches and cries before heading back to his headquarters.
I'm not exactly sure what's happening here in the headquarters, but it seems that it's about Jesus's arrest and Pilate's sentencing of him. One of the men says it's over. I'm not sure if they're angry at Judah for being in the chariot race and not preventing this from happening, the fact that their Messiah is capable of dying, or something else, but all of his followers are definitely leaving. Judah's quite upset and says, "I have to meet him!" before running off-stage. Tito runs after him, yelling, "Master!"
Now we see Jesus carrying a legitimate wooden cross. As Christians know, he's being jeered at by the crowds and whipped by the soldiers. Judah makes his way through the crowds to Jesus, who has collapse, and is saying something to him via song ("골고다" / "Calvary [also called Golgotha]"). The soldiers push him away, but he follows as Jesus is picked back up and handed his cross again. The next time Jesus collapses, the soldiers pick Jesus up and hand Judah Jesus's cross. Judah follows behind Jesus with the cross, still speaking to him. Eventually Judah's song hits the climax, and he throws the cross down. A collapsed Jesus drags himself over to Judah and whispers in his ear for a while. The soldiers whip him again, and he falls down before he's dragged away with his cross by the Roman soldiers. Judah can't believe whatever it is that he's heard. He sings some more, and when he finishes, we hear the sound of nails being pounded, a thunderclap and rain. With the thunderclap, the background changes from a red sky and black landscape to a grey sky with three crosses on a hill.
(This video is not from the musical. It's from the press conference they held in early August. I'm posting it so you can hear the song. This is Eun-tae BAK as Judah.)
Judah cries. His mother, his sister, Esther, Esther's father and Tito all arrive. I think he thinks he's gone mad and is seeing things. Each actor (and it varied by performance as well) reacted to this sight. However, eventually he realises that it's really his mother and that she (and his sister) has been cured of leprosy. He hugs her tightly and calls for his sister. She also calls out, "Big brother!" Esther also joins in on the hug as Judah yells out to God, "Thank you!" They all cry with Esther's father looking at them and Tito looking at Jesus on his cross.
Another screen with English words comes up which says something similar, but not the same as these words from the 1908 original Ben Hur novel:
If any of my readers, visiting Rome, will make the short journey to the Catacomb of San Calixto, which is more ancient than that of San Sebastiano, he will see what became of the fortune of Ben-Hur, and give him thanks. Out of that vast tomb Christianity issued to supersede the Caesars.
We see a ship being rowed again, but Judah is the captain. He sings the last song ("운명 Reprise" / "Destiny Reprise").
