Thank you Reese for the kofi!!! ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡
“So the day has finally come.”
A reporter sitting down with a large camera bag looked around the bustling auditorium as he spoke.
“Whoa, isn’t that the editor-in-chief from MAKE?”
“This performance really must be the talk of the town.”
This was one of the larger theaters in the West End.
One by one, every seat was filled with spectators.
London’s West End, known as the home of theater.
And the person putting on a production here today was none other than the famous Jessica Brown.
What she was staging today was the live-action stage adaptation of RUN from Rainbow Pictures, a company that dominated both Broadway and Hollywood.
The production had already been successfully localized around the world, breaking box-office records wherever it went.
Today was the day it finally arrived in Britain, so there was no way it wouldn’t become a major topic of conversation.
“Hey, that guy over there… Isn’t he the manager of Queen’s Theatre?”
“He won’t be the only one. I bet the place is crawling with people connected to West End theaters today.”
“Well, for this production, that makes sense.”
It had been a hot topic ever since the British performances were confirmed, but this production was a little more special.
Britain was the final country of this season’s worldwide localization tour of RUN, but there was another reason why reporters from all kinds of media outlets and theater experts had gathered at the theater today.
Expectations were already high, and then an Asian boy had been cast in the leading role.
What was more, the actor they had cast, Han Siwoo, was only five years old by British age.
Given the West End’s long history, the people who came here possessed a broad and varied range of experience.
It wasn’t as though the West End had never seen unconventional casting before, but Han Siwoo’s casting had undoubtedly become a sensation.
[The Lead of This Year’s Most Anticipated West End Production… A Five-Year-Old Child Actor from the East]
[The Rising Star Behind Korea’s Legendary RUN Success. How Will He Fare in Britain?]
[Britain, the Holy Land of Theater, Gives Its Leading Role to a Small Country in the East]
With things as they were, it wasn’t only the British theater press paying attention to Han Siwoo. The general media was watching him as well.
Many reporters showed concern and apprehension, along with endless curiosity toward this tiny leading actor.
Quite a few had even taken a firmly critical stance, their pride wounded by the thought that a role belonging to a British actor had been taken away.
“I think Jessica Brown made a mistake this time.”
“But I heard the kid they originally cast ran away?”
“Exactly. She panicked and made a bad move.”
Even among the people sitting in the audience, the debate over Han Siwoo showed no sign of ending.
“Still, wasn’t he the lead who did such a great job launching the RUN localization project in the first place?”
One person specifically pointed to the success of the Korean production of RUN.
Just as he said, it was the success in Korea that had led the localized stage project to expand across the world.
Even so, the people around him merely shook their heads or tilted them uncertainly.
“I have no idea how big the gap is between the standards of Korean theater and British theater.”
“Hardly anyone knows much about Korean theater in the first place.”
There were barely ten minutes left until the performance.
In the meantime, the audience was awash with doubts, speculation, and faint expectations regarding the five-year-old Asian actor named Han Siwoo.
How many people could truly look at a five-year-old Asian boy appearing on Jessica Brown’s stage without any prejudice at all?
An auditorium of roughly two thousand seats.
People of many different races watched the stage with expectation and doubt mingled in their eyes.
“Wow, the West End still has some life in it. I can’t believe they’d take on such a radical challenge.”
“Careful the British people don’t hear you. There are plenty of big-name theater people here today.”
“But it’s true, isn’t it? And look. We won’t know the result until the performance actually starts, but at least in terms of generating buzz, it’s already a success.”
Those who weren’t British looked forward to the actual performance with relatively lighter hearts.
“Five years old really is incredible.”
“Wasn’t the youngest actor ever to appear in a Rainbow Pictures live-action stage production around eight?”
Then came a conversation from right beside them.
It was being conducted in English with a distinctly American accent.
They casually called Jessica by her first name as they continued talking.
“Jessica made a big decision.”
“I wonder what she saw in him that made her decide to put him onstage. It’d be nice if we could figure out today exactly what it was about him that captivated Jessica.”
“How much of that can we really see from the first performance? He’s far too young. Doesn’t he still need more polishing? He’ll have to adjust to the stage too. And English isn’t even his first language.”
The people who appeared to be experts continued their in-depth discussion.
As speculation about Han Siwoo flew around from every direction, there was one group quietly listening to the conversation.
“Didn’t I just hear Siwoo’s name again?”
“Be quiet for a second. I’m taking a listening test right now.”
“Wow, sis, you can understand all of this?”
It was Han Siwoo’s family.
His father, who had arrived at Heathrow Airport that very morning and came straight here, was seated in the special section alongside Siwoo’s uncle and mother.
“Oh, come on. You know how Siwoo said he learned English from TV? I watched those shows with him.”
“…That’s not something just anyone can do, honey.”
“Shh, they just said Siwoo’s name again.”
Han Siwoo’s mother, Ji Yeonhwa, brought an index finger to her lips and told them to be quiet.
At that, the two men closed their mouths and quietly looked toward the stage.
The stage seemed at least twice as wide as the one used for the Korean production.
The RUN set, familiar yet strangely different, rested beneath the gentle darkness.
Having performed onstage himself, Ji Donguk was staring in shock as he remembered the RUN stage he had seen in Korea.
This wasn’t some small theater. There were even scenes where his young nephew would have to fill such a massive stage entirely by himself, and the thought suddenly made him worry whether the boy could withstand that kind of pressure.
He did seem good when I watched him practice, but still…
“Seems like everyone’s half worried and half excited.”
“Really?”
Ji Yeonhwa sighed after finishing one round of her English listening test.
At her words, Han Siwoo’s father, Han Taeho, let out a sigh of relief.
He had only seen RUN performed once in Korea.
Other than that, all he had done was hear bits and pieces about his young son from other people, which seemed to make him even more nervous.
He was practicing well.
He seemed to be adjusting well.
Han Taeho had never seen it for himself. Everything he knew had always come secondhand.
Perhaps because of that, he carried a vague anxiety over whether his son was really doing all right.
“Our Siwoo… He won’t get nervous, right? He’ll do well?”
“Of course, brother-in-law. Siwoo takes after my sister. He’s got nerves of steel.”
“He’s even more fearless than I am.”
Perhaps sensing Han Taeho’s tension, the siblings Ji Donguk and Ji Yeonhwa reassured him that there was nothing to worry about.
Hearing such confidence from the two people who were always by his son’s side, Han Taeho managed to regain a faint smile.
The two of them knew better than anyone just how hard Han Siwoo always worked, which was why they could speak so confidently.
“Right…?”
“Yes. Don’t worry.”
“Whose son do you think he is? Of course he’ll be fine.”
While the three family members reassured one another, the auditorium finished filling up.
Click.
Then every light in the theater went out.
“Bravo!”
The performance came to an end, and applause and cheers loud enough to bring down the theater erupted.
After the lights went dark once, they came back up to reveal the actors appearing one by one for the curtain call.
After the supporting cast had taken their bows, Gordon, who played Nixon, smiled brightly and waved both hands to the audience.
Then he courteously gestured toward the back of the stage.
And out came the stars of the day.
Han Siwoo, who played Jonathan, and Emily, who played Bella, walked onto the stage side by side, holding hands.
Waaaaah!
Wheeeew!
The audience grew even more feverish at the sight of the two of them.
“Johnny! Perfect! Excellent!”
“Bella! Bravo!”
Amid the tremendous shouting, endless praise poured toward the pair.
There was a standing ovation, and people throughout the auditorium called out the leads’ names as they cheered.
Onstage, Han Siwoo took Gordon and Emily by the hands and bowed once more toward the audience.
The actors, showered with applause, left the stage with bright smiles.
Once the curtain call ended, the auditorium filled with cheerful chatter.
“Whew, that really was an incredible performance.”
“Hey, where did all those people who were worried earlier go? Did they all turn tail after seeing the perfect Jonny?”
“No, no. More importantly, are you sure he really came from Korea? He didn’t grow up in Britain?”
“Exactly! His English was fantastic. He captured the British accent perfectly!”
The audience’s conversations, once filled with concern, had transformed into exhilaration.
It was the moment their doubts toward the young Asian actor turned into absolute trust.
“He looked like he’d stepped straight out of the original too! Wasn’t he adorable?”
“Those brown curls were so cute. At this point, Han Siwoo’s Jonny feels even more real to me than the original Jonathan.”
As if the lingering excitement of the performance still hadn’t faded, the praise for Han Siwoo’s appearance continued without pause.
They seemed to have already forgotten that this little actor was Asian.
“More than anything, that acting was unbelievable. He’s really five? I couldn’t sense even the slightest bit of nervousness.”
“There was a seasoned quality to him that you normally only see from someone with tremendous stage experience. This is absurd. I can’t believe a five-year-old made me feel this way.”
“I have to admit it. I can see why Jessica Brown brought him here.”
“After meeting a Jonny like that, how could any other Jonny possibly measure up? We’ve already seen a fully realized Jonny!”
The experts were equally excited by Han Siwoo’s ability, pouring out rapid-fire comments.
Even as they left the theater, they endlessly shared impressions mixed with analysis, their faces so bright that they hardly resembled the expressions they had worn before the performance.
“They’re saying he did well, right?”
“Yeah, yeah! They’re saying he was incredible. All I keep hearing is ‘amazing,’ ‘fantastic,’ things like that. Wow, our Siwoo can win people over even in Britain?”
Han Taeho, who had quietly been listening to the other spectators, asked his family with a dazed expression.
Ji Donguk looked back toward the stage with a deeply satisfied expression, marveling at what he had seen.
His nephew was becoming a greater and greater figure with every passing day, enough to make Ji Donguk feel that giving up his own dream had been worthwhile.
“I never thought my own son would feel this unfamiliar to me.”
“Brother-in-law, how much of the dialogue did you understand?”
“…I knew the general story, so I could follow it well enough. Maybe I should study some English too.”
He had felt nothing but guilt over being unable to come to Britain with his son, but now Han Taeho’s eyes began to redden with pride at the sight of Siwoo completing such an excellent performance even without him there.
“Whew… Thank goodness.”
Ji Yeonhwa, who had watched the final result of all that work as well, let out a relieved sigh and quickly wiped away her tears.
The final image left in the minds of all three was Han Siwoo’s brightly smiling face.
The very next day after the opening performance.
A small article appeared in the corner of the newspapers being carried by people along the streets of the West End.
[The Little Giant from Korea! We Look Forward to Seeing Just How Great the Ripples He Sends Through the West End Will Become.]
The article showered the British production of RUN with praise.
It introduced Han Siwoo as an actor whom Jessica Brown had chosen not once, but twice.
The article also included a small photograph of Han Siwoo, the Asian actor from Korea.
It showed Jonny smiling brightly in his brown curly-haired wig.
And this article was only the beginning of the enormous waves Han Siwoo would soon send rippling through the streets of the West End.
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