Real-Life Father And Son To Play Romantically Involved Gay Characters In Upcoming Production
A father and son were recently announced to play gay characters in an upcoming production.
Actor Lee Hyo Jung, known to many for his award-winning role in Dear My Sister, will be one of the many actors starring in a stage production of Angels in America.
Written by American playwright Tony Kushner, Angels in America is set in the mid-1980s during the HIV/AIDs Crisis. The main character is a gay man with AIDs who receives heavenly visions.
The play deals with religion, internalized homophobia, drug addiction, and other serious themes and has won several awards.
Lee Hyo Jung is set to play Roy Cohn, a closeted gay lawyer based on a real-life person of the same name. Like his real-life counterpart, Roy Cohn discovers he has advanced AIDs and is dying, choosing to lie to the public about his illness.
The character Roy Cohn has a mentee named Joseph Pitt, who also struggles with his attraction to men while dealing with his drug-addicted wife. Lee Yoo Jin, the son of Lee Hyo Jung, will play Joseph Pitt in this production.
The pair have a complicated and convoluted relationship, with Cohn ultimately rejecting Pitt after the latter confesses his homosexuality to him. When speaking about the role, Lee Hyo Jung stated he worried about having to play the character that was attracted to his son’s character but found it easier than expected.
My main co-star is my son, [playing] Joseph. In the play, he is also the character I feel a homosexual love towards. Starting this play, I was most worried because there had never been a precedent in Korea where a father and son portrayed such characters. First, I hesitated on a personal level about taking on the role. I wondered if my son could look me in the eye and act, and I also worried if I could endure the play. But it turned out to be surprisingly okay. We’re both having a lot of fun with it.
— Lee Hyo Jung
Angels in America is set to be performed at the LG SIGNATURE Hall of the LG Arts Center in Seoul from August 6 to September 28, 2024.
