The 34th Young Theater Festival, Hoe-ran-gi

[Synopsis] Hoerangi is a story of Jang Haedang, who is falsely accused amidst greed and power, but ultimately proves her life through truth and maternal love. "Truth trapped within a circle of lime; toward whose hands does the true bond of heaven turn?" Jang Haedang, who became a kisaeng after her family fell into ruin, enters the household of the wealthy Ma Wonoe as a concubine, gives birth to her son Surang, and lives peaceful days. However, Ma Wonoe's primary wife, Lady Ma, enjoys secret trysts with Magistrate Jo of the local government office and devises a terrible conspiracy. After poisoning Ma Wonoe, the two frame Jang Haedang for the crime and begin to claim that even the son Haedang gave birth to is their own flesh and blood in order to monopolize the vast wealth of the Ma clan. To make matters worse, the midwife and neighbors, bribed by Magistrate Jo, provide false testimonies, and after brutal torture by the corrupt Jeongju government office, Haedang is eventually transported to the capital's Gaebongbu under a false accusation. Po Daeje, a righteous official of Gaebongbu who takes on the retrial of the case, decides to issue a strange verdict to uncover the tangled truth and identify the real mother: he draws a round circle of lime (Hoeran) on the ground and orders the two women to pull the child toward them... Amidst lies stained with greed, can the blood-curdling cries of an unjustly accused woman truly reach the heavens?