A signature work by Song Hyun-ok, a Sejong University professor who has worked as a theater director for more than 30 years and is the wife of Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, returns to the stage. Widely known to the public as a politician's spouse, Song has steadily presented physical theater that combines the actor's body, space, music and objects. The play "The Chair Mender," a signature piece in Song's repertoire, will run from the 18th to the 20th of next month at the main hall of the Naru Art Center in Seoul.
Based on the eponymous short story by French writer Guy de Maupassant, "The Chair Mender" depicts 55 years in the life of a woman who loved one man her entire life. Rather than reproducing the original faithfully, Song reinterpreted it as a stage work that actively draws on the actors' bodies, space, music and objects.
"In an era when film and television have become part of daily life, it is not enough for theater to tell stories the same way," Song said. "Theater must meet audiences as a Gesamtkunstwerk that combines the actor's body — which already holds countless stories even before words begin — with space, music and objects."
The production features a multitude of discarded chairs. The actors render the repair of chairs as intricate ensemble movement, while a narrator carries the story forward. The act of mending a chair extends beyond simple labor into a process of restoring forgotten wounds, memories and the value of existence. It offers a view of Song's distinctive stage aesthetic, which departs from dialogue-centered theater to convey stories through the actors' bodies and stage imagery.
"The Chair Mender" was selected for the Arts Council Korea's "2019 ARKO Performing Arts Creation Center — New Works of the Year" and premiered in 2020 at the ARKO Arts Theater's main hall. It was later staged in Yongin, Incheon's Cheongna and Jinju in South Gyeongsang Province through the 2023 "Culture Sympathy Across the Country" program, and in 2024 it was selected for the Korea Arts Management Service's distribution program for small and mid-sized content, meeting audiences in Hanam and Seongnam.
Song has met audiences with works centered on physical language. "The Lower Depths," a reinterpretation of the play by Maxim Gorky, was invited to the Youth Theater in Vladivostok, Russia, in 2018, and the following year it was staged as the opening work of the 9th Gorky International Theater Festival in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. Her work has also reached overseas stages including the Brno Festival in the Czech Republic, the Luna Theater in Moscow and an international theater festival in Kazakhstan.
"I did not want to reach a single conclusion about the life of a woman who spent her whole life looking to just one person," Song said. "I wanted to raise questions — whether it is sublime love or foolish obsession, and by what standard we judge the lives of others."
The performance was co-planned by the Gwangjin Cultural Foundation and the theater company Mulgyeol. It will be staged at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 18 and at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Sept. 19-20, with a running time of 100 minutes. It is open to viewers aged 7 and over.
