Director Song Hyun-ok Brings Maupassant’s 55-Year Obsession to the Stage
Creatrip Team
23 days ago
Director Song Hyun-ok—known to the public as the wife of Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon but a respected theatre artist in her own right—has staged Guy de Maupassant’s short story The Chair‑Mender (original title in Korean: ‘의자 고치는 여인’) as a physical theatre piece. The play follows a poor chair repairwoman who loves a pharmacist’s son for 55 years despite never being loved in return. Song focuses on the actors’ bodies and the movement of chairs as dramatic language: chairs become labor, memory, burden, and time. Rather than labeling the woman’s life as noble devotion or destructive obsession, the production leaves the question open, using music, lighting, and choreography to show how love, class, and money intertwine. The play runs in Seoul’s Naru Art Center (Sep 18–20) and features the ensemble from theatre company Mulgyeol, presenting a 100‑minute, intermission‑free performance that emphasizes embodied theatre over spoken explanation.
