세계화와 관련된 연극 및 문화 현상이 일부 우월한 서구국가 중심으로 전개되고 있고, 서구 제국주의 기획을 은폐되고 있다면, 이 맥락에서 우리가 대안으로 관망할 수 있는 것은 문화상호주의가 품고 있는 의도와 이상 그리고 실천 사례이다. 이 맥락에서 문화상호주의와 한국의 셰익스피어 공연을 관련지어 거론하는 것은 셰익스피어 공연이 보편성을 지녔으며, 동시에 국제적인 아방가르드들의 실험을 위해, 문화 교류를 위해, 전세계적 문화 상품화를 위해, 포스트콜로니얼 비판 등을 위해 중요한 가능성을 지닌 것으로 증명되고 있기 때문이다. 한국의 경우, 셰익스피어 연극은 안민수 외 70년대와 이후 시대의 연출가들의 실험을 위해 선택되었고, 그들의 해외 나들이에 동행하며, 포스트콜로니얼리즘, 포스트모더니즘, 페미니즘 등의 다양한 담론을 생산해낸 중요한 진원지였다. 본고는 ‘노뜰’의 <동방의 햄릿>, ‘연희단거리패’의 <햄릿>, 국립극단의 <테러리스트 햄릿>를 택해 이상의 논점을 제기하였다. 그리고 세 공연의 소통방식이 각기 90년대 문화상호주의 연극의 주요 담론인 ‘초문화’, ‘혼합주의’, ‘글로컬문화’ 등의 관점을 담지하고 있다는 사실을 살펴보았다. 이를 통해 한국 연극에서 연극을 통한 문화 소통의 가능성과 한계를 점검하고자 하였다.
With the start of the new millenium, the globalization began to penetrate into individual's everyday life shrinking the traditional distance between the countries. Accordingly, the cultures cross the borders and interact with each other. 'To be less local', as Marvin Carlson insisted, was the burning issue for the theatrical theorists as well as theatre practitioners at present. Nonetheless, it can't be denied that the theatrical communication between the borders was actually an unequal exchange and power relationship. In early intercultural practices, the western theatrical artists appropriated and de-historicized the oriental culture for their stylistic mise-en-scenes in stead of for their cultural essence. Therefore, it became imperative for the Korean theatre artists to approach the intercultural communication using their own initiatives. Here, Shakespearean plays have proved themselves as a prominent vehicle for this purpose in Korean theatre as well as in other global cultures.
'To explore the possibilities and the challenges of intercultural communication', I will examine Theatre Nottle's Hamlet from the East, Yeonhuidan Gureepae's(Street Theatre Troupe) Hamlet, and National Theatre Company's Terrorist Hamlet to analyze three typical aspects of intercultural exchange like as trancultural, syncretic, and glocal cultural communication. I have chosen these three productions because they have already proved their possibilities because they sufficiently demonstrate the possibilities of successful intercultural exchanges. Nonetheless, the productions also revealed the crucial barriers that exist. Hamlet from the East should have ensured the authenticity when appropriating and hybridizing the western cultural image into an artifact. Yeonhuidan Gureepae's Hamlet should have secured interpretational consistency and probabilities in order to have avoided the danger of simple bricolage, and while National Theatre Company's Terrorist Hamlet turned out to be as a authentic cultural communication, it was still doubtful whether cultural communication was exchanged equally.
As a result, this paper could reach a conclusion that theatrical communication should be more specific and based on the universal human condition. Also, cultural exchanges should embrace the present cultural issues as well as various critical discourses. When producing a intercultural theatrical production, theatrical practitioners and theorists should fully explore the above ideas, rather than navigating them superficially. Above all, intercultural communication in theatrical productions should take place for the following reasons: experimental encounters, curiosity, and to reach a better understanding of the other culture.