Actor Moon Geun-young, who overcame a rare disease and returned to the theater stage after nine years, announced a shocking transformation into the orphaned young man "Tret."
On the afternoon of the 19th, Moon Geun-young, who attended a press conference for the play "Orphans" at TOM Hall 1 in Daehangno, Jongno-gu, Seoul, stood before reporters with a determined gaze. Since 2017's "Romeo and Juliet," she went through treatment and recovery from a rare disease called acute compartment syndrome, which had drawn fans' concern, making this comeback receive hotter attention than ever.
What became the talk of the press conference that day was Moon Geun-young's "acting transformation." The role Moon Geun-young plays is the brother "Tret," who has lived roughly to protect his younger brother Philip in an old house in the north of Philadelphia. Moon Geun-young took on this role, which has mainly been played by Namsung actors, as a challenge with gender-free casting.
Moon Geun-young confessed, "Actually, I had concerns because the role of Tret is gender-free." She said she made extraordinary efforts to portray a character that is the complete opposite of her usual upright image.
She said, "I'm not usually good at swearing, so at first I worried that the lines would not sound like swearing," and added, "To properly capture the nuances of the swearing, I practiced intensely with help from younger siblings and older sisters and brothers around me," which made the room burst into laughter. She added, "To express a rough personality, I practiced spinning a knife and rehearsed so the action scenes wouldn't look sloppy."
What ultimately brought Moon Geun-young back to the stage after a long absence was the power of the work itself. Moon Geun-young said, "The script's message of consolation really resonated with me," and said, "Reading the script almost every night, I felt 'I want to take on this challenge' and 'I want to get it done no matter what,' which led me to decide to appear."
With Moon Geun-young's joining, the play "Orphans" has become even hotter; it is a representative work by American playwright Lyle Kessler that depicts how middle-aged gangster Harold and the orphaned brothers Tret and Philip become a family through unexpected cohabitation.
The production, featuring a strong lineup of actors with solid acting skills including Moon Geun-young, Park Ji-il, Woo Hyun-joo, Lee Seok-jun, Yang So-min, Jung In, Choi Seok-jin, and Oh Seung-hoon, will meet audiences at TOM Hall 1 in Daehangno through May 31.
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