One-person stage plays are on the rise amid pandemic

A scene from the play “The Heart” / Courtesy of Project Group Ilda

By Park Ji-won

One-person plays are not a very common form of theater here, but more production companies are focusing on solo stage performances and other small-scale productions as they are more social-distancing-friendly and deal with self-reflecting subjects amid the pandemic.

At least five one-person shows are expected to be staged this year. “An Iliad,” a stage adaptation of Homer's “Iliad” written by Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare, will premiere at YES24 Stage on June 29 for a run until Sept. 5 in Korea and performed by three actors: Hwang Suk-jeong, Choi Jae-woong and Kim Jong-gu. The play, directed by Kim Dal-joong, will explore various voices of people hit hard by the Trojan War through the performers' narration.

“The Heart” tells a story revolving around Simon Limbres, a 19-year-old boy who was declared brain-dead after a car accident. This one-person show was written by Emmanuel Noblet, who adapted the book of the same title written by Maylis de Kerangal. It runs at Jeongdong Theater from June 1 to 27. It premiered in Korea in 2019, enjoying sold-out performances.

In “Demian,” a one-man play which was performed from May 21 to 30, Yang Jong-wook of the Yangson Project narrated and performed Hermann Hesse's novel for about four hours with a 15-minute intermission.

“The Yangson Project has been fascinated with adapting novels to stage performances. During the process, one-person shows emerged in the scene and we focused on exploring the possibilities of the art form. It is interesting to see how well a play can show the unique characteristics of three different actors. So, we came up with the first piece Demian so that it can show the characters and reflections of the three,” the Yangson Project wrote on its website.

Actress Sung Soo-yeon, who won the prize for young theater actor at the Baeksang Arts Awards in 2019, appeared in the one-person plays "Actress One: Robot Actor No. 1" and "Actress Two: Villain Actor" at the National Theater Company of Korea in April and May. They centered on questioning the nature of being human and art by showing a robot actor in the future when AI becomes more a part of daily life.

Last year, one-person shows such as “Grounded” by musical star Cha Ji-yeon, “Der Contrabass” by actor Park Sang-won and “Dostoevsky's The Grand Inquisitor and Goethe's Faust” by actor Jung Dong-hwan also hit local theaters.

Insiders say that solo productions may reflect the pandemic situation where it gets harder to maintain social-distancing rules in theaters.

Stressing that more production companies have tried to secure spacious practice rooms to prevent further infections, an official from a production company said, “It is a lot easier for production companies to stage solo shows as it is better to organize rehearsals with a small group of people than large groups while holding to social-distancing rules during the pandemic.”