Based on Irish playwriter Oscar Wilde’s book The Happy Prince and Other Tales, the musical begins with the actor playing Oscar Wilde himself opening the first act.
Once upon a time, in a northwestern European town, there stood the statue of the Happy Prince. With deep blue sapphire eyes, twinkling red ruby on his sword, and a shining golden body, he was admired by all the people in the town.
One day, a flock of swallows were passing by the town on their way to Egypt. While most of them had left early before the weather turned cold, one swallow stayed behind. He had fallen in love with the reeds. The swallow loved how they would sway and dance for him whenever he came near. However, he soon realized that the reeds not only swayed for him but whenever the wind blew as well. Heartbroken, the swallow decided to leave for Egypt the next day.
With no place to go, the swallow decided to spend his last night on the footsteps of the statue of the Happy Prince. Just as he was about to fall asleep, he felt raindrops fall from above. They were the tears of the Happy Prince. The swallow asked why he was crying. The prince answered: it was because he could see all the starving people and the ugliness of the city from above, the place he belonged all the time. The Happy Prince did not know about these issues when he had a heart of a human. Only now, when he had turned into a statue with a heart made of lead, did he realize the dark misery of the town.
One day, the Happy Prince saw a thin, pale woman far away. She was embroidering a silk satin dress for the upcoming royal ball. Next to her, was her sick feverish son, who kept tossing and turning in bed. The boy wished to eat oranges, but they were out of money. The seamstress had to finish the satin dress for money, but her hands were all red and swollen, prickled by the needle. There was nothing the woman could do for her ill son. Watching this, tears fell again from the Happy Prince’s blue sapphire eyes. He wanted to help them, but as his legs were tied to the statue, he could not do anything but watch them. The Happy Prince asked the swallow for one favor, to deliver the ruby from his sword to the woman. The swallow was hesitant, since all his friends had already left, and he had planned to leave the very next morning. However, he decided to stay and help the prince. It was that moment they both felt warm in the cold winter night.
The next day, the prince saw a young man crouched down in a dark dusty attic. He was a poor playwright who dreamed of being acknowledged as an artist. He had to finish writing a play for the theater director, but he could not continue because his hands were frozen from the blistering cold. He was another poor soul who caught the eyes of the Happy Prince. The Happy Prince pleaded with the swallow to help him once more. Even though the swallow was already behind schedule and could not understand the prince’s sacrifices, the swallow helped the prince. In the attic, the young man was in despair. The swallow gently put the sapphire on top of his desk. When the young man looked up and discovered the sapphire from the prince, there was hope in his eyes. Watching the young man, the swallow strangely felt hopeful as well.
At last, the swallow could not delay leaving anymore. The weather was too cold for him, and it would soon start to snow. As he bid farewell to the Happy Prince, he promised that he would bring back two beautiful jewels next spring in place of those that the prince had given away. One redder than the ruby he gave the seamstress, and a sapphire clearer than the one he gave the young playwright. However, there was a dark cloud hanging over the Happy Prince’s face. He saw another poor soul in the square below. A girl was barefoot without even a winter jacket. Once she returned home penniless, she would be beaten by her father. The prince asked the swallow for one last favor, to give his other eye to the girl. The swallow could not possibly do it. He burst into tears and begged the prince to reconsider. The prince only had one eye left, and he would become blind forever, but all this did not matter to him. Although he was about to lose the only eye he had left, the Happy Prince never looked happier. The swallow plucked out the last sapphire and slipped it into the palm of the girl’s hand. The light faintly fades away until the stage and turns pitch black. Just like the Happy Prince, the audience cannot see anything. It was this very moment the audience felt the same way as the prince.
The swallow decided to stay with the prince. He knew that he was the only one left beside the prince. The swallow flew over the city and told the prince how the rich were in their warm cozy mansions while the homeless were crouched down in the dark streets. When the prince heard this, he insisted the swallow to pick off the gold on his body piece by piece and give it to the poor. He said that the gold would make them rich. The swallow picked out the gold, piece after piece until the prince looked dull and grey. The actor’s silver-grey suit that used to look shiny now seemed drabber than ever.
Meanwhile, as the streets were glistening with the golden pieces from the prince, the Happy Prince was unrecognizably ragged. As cheerful chants and laughter of joy filled the streets, God and His Angels curiously watched this scene from above.
The time had come when the swallow could no longer resist the cold weather. He felt his heartbeat slowing down. His wings which once allowed him to soar up into the sky hardly moved. With all the strength left in his body, he flew up to the prince’s shoulder one last time. As he kissed the Happy Prince goodbye, the swallow fell to the ground. At that moment, there was a strange cracking sound from the statue. The prince’s lead heart had cracked and snapped into two.
The next morning, as the mayor and town councilors were passing by, they noticed how the statue of the Happy Prince had tarnished. In their eyes, the statue had lost its beauty, all its exquisite jewels and gold surface were gone. They all agreed to tear down the statue. Right away, the Happy Prince was sent to the foundry where they melted down the statue. Strangely, however, the broken lead heart did not melt. Having no use, the men threw it away along with the dead body of the swallow. Like this, in the middle of the dump, there lay the lead heart of the Happy Prince and the swallow. When God asked Gabriel to bring him the two most precious things from the city, the angel brought the lead heart and the dead body of the swallow. They were the two most precious things in the city. A heart that not even a furnace could melt, and a heart that had learned what it meant to truly love someone.
The musical The Happy Prince is a one-man play, where the actor plays all three characters, Oscar Wilde, the Happy Prince, and the swallow. Set in a simple stage with only four background instruments filling the silence, the audience is able to be deeply immersed in the performance. There is never a dull moment, as the actor switches acting each of the main characters. As the original classic conveys many valuable life lessons to the readers, the musical does so too. The Happy Prince lost all his jewels and gold, but there was one message he left for the audience: Do not wait for a Happy Prince to appear in your life. Instead, become that Happy Prince yourself and look around at others who are in need of help.
Date: 2023.04.29 – 2023. 06.18
Place: Chungmu Art Center Middle Theater Black