Isabelle Huppert: "Han Kang's writing remains powerful wherever it is performed"

Actress Lee Hyeyoung and the Korean Premiere of the Staged Reading "Bird"

A Staged Reading of Part 1 of Han Kang's Novel "We Do Not Part"

World Premiere at the Avignon Festival Last July

"Han Kang's writing is so powerful that it seems to retain its force and move audiences wherever it is performed."

French actress Isabelle Huppert shared these thoughts after the Korean premiere of the staged reading "Bird" at the Mary Hall Grand Theater at Sogang University in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on October 10.

"Bird" is a staged reading based on key passages from Part 1 of Han Kang's novel "We Do Not Part." Published in 2021, "We Do Not Part" is a novel about the tragedy of the Jeju April 3 Incident and its lingering scars. The novel consists of three parts, and Part 1 is titled "Bird."

"Bird" made its world premiere last July at the Avignon Festival, a world-renowned performing arts festival in France. The festival organizers selected Korean as an official invited language this year and commissioned a staged reading of a work by Han Kang, the Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. Julie Deliquet directed the production. Last year, she directed a play of the same title based on Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich's "The Unwomanly Face of War." Alexievich received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015, and "The Unwomanly Face of War" is a work of oral history compiling the testimonies of Soviet women who fought in World War II. In several respects, it is connected to Han Kang's "We Do Not Part." "Bird" was selected as an international invited production for the 2026 Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF), bringing it to Korea for its local premiere.

Actress Isabelle Huppert (left) and Lee Hye-young perform a reading of “Birds” at the Mary Hall Grand Theater at Sogang University on the 10th. Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF)

The two main characters in "Bird," Part 1 of "We Do Not Part," are Inseon and Gyeongha. Gyeongha, a novelist, and Inseon, a photographer and documentary filmmaker, first met as colleagues while working on magazine assignments and have remained friends for more than 20 years. "Bird" follows Gyeongha's journey to Jeju at Inseon's request. Jeju is Inseon's hometown, and she heard stories about the April 3 Incident from her mother. After returning home to care for her mother, Inseon stayed in Jeju even after her mother died four years ago, working as a carpenter. One day, while working with wood, Inseon had an accident in which two of her fingers were severed and was admitted to a hospital in Seoul. She asks Gyeongha, who has come to visit her, to go give water to Ama, the parrot left alone at her home in Jeju. Gyeongha heads to Inseon's home in Jeju through a heavy snowstorm.

Deliquet said she wanted to focus on the friendship between the two main characters, Inseon and Gyeongha. "Their friendship was forged through their work and mutual respect. They are both vulnerable, but they share their strength with each other and devote it to saving a dying bird."

When Gyeongha, responding to Inseon's request, says she will go to Jeju the next morning, Inseon asks her to leave that very night, saying the parrot will not survive until tomorrow.

Deliquet saw the parrot as a symbol of human vulnerability. She explained, "Inseon is in a very weakened state herself, yet she desperately clings to the hope of saving the parrot whose life is fading because she keeps remembering the stories she heard from her mother about people who died in the past."

Both Deliquet and Huppert said they knew nothing about the Jeju April 3 Incident before working on "Bird," and stressed the importance of learning historical truths through art.

Deliquet said, "I believe we can discover tragedies that history has failed to fully capture through literature and art. I believe literature and art connect us, the generations to come, with people of the past who disappeared without a name, and help continue the conversation between the living and the souls of the dead." She added that, after directing works by Alexievich and now Han Kang in succession, she had "given a great deal of thought to the problem of how, even after a community has endured something horrific like war, it can remain unable to speak about it and be forced into silence for 10, 20 or even 40 years."

Huppert said that although the Jeju April 3 Incident is part of Korean history, it is also a universal history that everyone can relate to. She said, "Many events experienced during World War II were not revealed at all until artists began bringing those stories to light one by one and turning them into films and other works. Only then did people discover that history. The story told in this novel may seem confined to one country, but I believe it can convey truths that resonate universally with many more people."

Choi Seokgyu, artistic director of the Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF), actors Lee Hyeyoung and Isabelle Huppert, and director Julie Deliquet pose for a commemorative photo. Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF)

Lee Hye-young, who plays Inseon, said Han Kang's novel was beautiful despite dealing with a painful history. "I have seen many dramas and films about painful histories, but I wondered whether there had ever been a work as beautiful as Han Kang's novel. I became interested in Han Kang and started looking for her other books, too."

"Bird" made its world premiere last July at the 80th Avignon Festival, held in the Cour d'honneur of the Papal Palace in Avignon. The Cour d'honneur is a landmark outdoor venue synonymous with the Avignon Festival, with a capacity of about 2,000. By contrast, the Mary Hall Grand Theater at Sogang University, where the Korean premiere took place, has 428 seats.

Lee Hye-young said that while the Avignon performance was deeply moving, the Korean production in an indoor venue offered a different kind of appeal. "At the Avignon performance, which was outdoors, the wind and other elements of nature were part of the experience. But because the Korean premiere was indoors, you could focus more on the silence and on each other's words. You could focus more on the relationship between the two characters, and a closer connection with the audience was created."

Toward the end of "Bird," a passage presents specific historical facts, including the number of people killed in the Jeju April 3 Incident. At the Avignon Festival last July, Han Kang made a surprise appearance and read this passage herself. At the Seoul performance, a 15-year-old ninth-grade middle school student took the stage and read the same passage.

Deliquet explained that she wanted a member of a new generation who should learn about this history to read the passage. She said, "Lee Hye-young told me that it took a very long time for the Jeju April 3 Incident to be included in textbooks, and that it was a historical event that her generation and even her children's generation learned about only belatedly. I wanted the younger generation to learn about this history, so I wanted a young student to deliver the final reading."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.