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In the spring of 1980, citizens heartened by what looked like an end to two decades of military dictatorship began rallying for democracy, only to have their hopes crushed when yet another army official seized power.

Exactly 20 years ago this week, residents in Kwangju, capital of South Cholla Province, rose up against the military government with the aim of keeping their dream alive, only to have the movement end in tragedy. Several tens of thousands of residents rallied and even took up arms as their fellow protesters and innocent citizens were shot and slashed to death by the military regime beginning May 18.

Standing up for the cause of justice and democracy, an undetermined number of people lost their lives in the 10-day street fight with thousands of heavily-armed infiltration soldiers.

While the official count showed 170 deaths and 20 missing, local residents claim the death toll was much higher. The bloody incident carved an indelible scar in the hearts of both Kwangju residents and people across the country.

This tragic chapter in Korea's contemporary history has now been reconstructed in the form of an epic drama by a famed Korean poet/playwright.

Written by Hwang Ji-woo, "The May Bride" will be performed May 18 on an outdoor stage at the Seoul Arts Center in southern Seoul. The play recounts the Kwangju incident through the fictional story of five people who fight to the last against the advancing army.

"Without pursuing a political agenda, I tried to put across the story by incorporating the unique psychological and emotional experiences of the five characters involved," said Hwang in an interview with The Korea Herald.

While it is not a new idea to use the Kwangju massacre as the backdrop for an artistic work, previous interpretations of the incident tended to realistically depict the bloody struggle or put across a clear-cut political message. "'The May Bride' focuses more on capturing the extreme inner turmoil of people confronting threats to their lives," he said.

The two-hour drama revolves around a group of people who are holed up in the headquarters of the civilian justice army. The five people include army spokesman Kim Hyon-shik; his fiance, night school teacher O Min-jong; and Catholic priest John Chang, who begins to lose his courage and finally begs for his life in the face of the encroaching threat.

The play opens with a prologue set years after the incident and focusing on Chang, who tells of the pain he has suffered for failing to live up to his duties as a priest.

As they stare down death, the characters go through various emotional conflicts. Their ordeal climaxes in Kim and O's decision to marry under the priest's officiation as the high-pitched sounds of rolling tanks and approaching footsteps are heard in the background.

The main theme that runs through the play is the sense of guilt harbored by many Koreans for not participating in the movement or staying quiet when their fellow countrymen chose to risk their lives for the cause, Hwang said.

"I wanted to dramatize the sense of regret which is perhaps felt by those who chose not to join in the movement," said the playwright.

The tragic incident at Kwangju planted the seeds of the pro-democracy movement in the 1980s, when students disputed the legitimacy of the military regimes, who ordered the deaths of citizens and framed them as Communists in order to rationalize their iron-fisted rule.

Even though the drama is based on a true-life incident, Hwang said its value as an artistic production lies in the way it reveals truths about human nature.

"As artists, all those involved in the play believed that producing a good drama on the Kwangju uprising would be the only way to publicize its cause to the rest of the world," Hwang said.

Accordingly, the ultimate goal of the writer is to bring the drama to the world as a popular musical production and thus offer a glimpse of Korea's thorny path to democracy.

"With its appealing music, the artistic potential of the musical version of 'The May Bride' is extremely bright, which should allow it to compete with 'Les Miserables' or 'Miss Saigon,'" Hwang said.

The crew for the production includes some of the most talented artists in the theatrical field, including set designer Yoon Sung-sop and director Kim Kwang-lim, both of whom are Hwang's fellow professors at Korea National University of the Arts.

"The May Bride" will be performed at Seoul Art Center's outdoor theater, located on Mt. Umyon behind the facility, at 8 p.m. every night from May 18 until May 27. The performances are timed with the 10-day period when the uprising occurred.