Han Kang's 'We Do Not Part' finds intimate voice on Seoul stage

“Oiseau,” a bilingual reading play based on Han Kang’s “We Do Not Part,” made its Korean premiere at Sogang University’s Mary Hall on Saturday. Isabelle Huppert read in French and Lee Hye-young in Korean, bringing the story’s friendship and buried Jeju April 3 tragedy into an intimate indoor setting. Presented through Sunday as part of the Seoul Performing Arts Festival, the production replaced its Avignon ending with a reading by 15-year-old Hwang Ju-hyun.

The production moved from the roughly 2,000-seat outdoor Cour d’honneur at the Palace of the Popes to a 500-seat indoor theater in Seoul.

The story follows In-seon, who loses two fingers in a woodworking accident and asks Kyung-ha to travel to Jeju Island to care for her parrot.

Director Julie Deliquet said the production foregrounded the women’s friendship and vulnerability before addressing the massacre.

Hwang Ju-hyun replaced Han Kang in reading the final passage in Seoul because the production wanted to entrust the history to a younger generation.

Subtitles accompanied both languages, with Korean and English subtitles during Huppert’s French passages and French and English translations during Lee’s Korean reading.

Published Oct 13, 2026 7:00 am KST

French actress Isabelle Huppert, right, and Lee Hye-young, left, perform a reading play of “Oiseau,” directed by Julie Deliquet based on Han Kang’s novel “We Do Not Part,” at Mary Hall at Sogang University in Seoul, Saturday. Courtesy of Seoul Performing Arts Festival

On a stage stripped of almost everything but white, actors Isabelle Huppert and Lee Hye-young summoned a snowbound island. There were no trees, no hospital bed and no visible parrot to rescue. Yet as the French and Korean actors read from Han Kang’s novel, their voices and languages supplied the scenery: severed fingers ache and snow gathering around an unseen house.

“Oiseau,” a bilingual reading play drawn from the Nobel laureaute's “We Do Not Part,” made its Korean premiere at Sogang University’s Mary Hall on Saturday — exactly two years after Han won the Nobel Prize in literature, a date Korean literature fans affectionately call “Han Kang Day.”

Presented through Sunday as part of the Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF), the production brought July’s Avignon Festival premiere from the roughly 2,000-seat outdoor Cour d’honneur at the Palace of the Popes into a 500-seat indoor theater.

The smaller space sharpened its defining quality: intimacy.

Dressed in white, Huppert and Lee stood amid white fabric in front of reading stands. Huppert voiced Kyung-ha in French while Lee read In-seon in Korean. Korean and English subtitles accompanied the French passages, while French and English translations appeared during Lee’s reading.

The story begins with In-seon hospitalized after losing two fingers in a woodworking accident. She asks her friend Kyung-ha to travel to Jeju Island and feed her parrot before it dies. Kyung-ha’s journey through a blizzard gradually opens another landscape: the buried violence of the Jeju April 3 tragedy.

The contrast between Huppert’s French and Lee’s Korean also seemed to give audible form to the cultural distance between Kyung-ha, a mainland Korean, and In-seon, a Jeju native, without diminishing the intimacy of their friendship.

Without reenacting the violence, the production made accounts of agonizing medical treatment and a mother searching among bodies for relatives demanded that viewers imagine what the stage withheld.

At the post-performance press conference, Huppert said moving indoors has changed the actors’ relationship with each other and their audience.

From left, reading play "Oiseau" director Julie Deliquet, actress Isabelle Huppert and Lee Hye-young and Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF) artistic director Choi Kyu attend a press conference after the play's Korean premiere in Seoul, Saturday. Courtesy of SPAF

“In Avignon, natural elements were with us, which was unique. But here, we had something else: more proximity and intimacy with the audiences,” she said.

Han’s writing, she added, retained its power regardless of location, reaching spectators with “a different kind of intensity.”

Lee likewise felt a shift before an audience listening in her mother tongue.

“The audience completes theater,” she said. “I could feel audiences listening in their native language concentrating more closely on the dialogue.”

Director Julie Deliquet said she wanted to foreground the women’s friendship and vulnerability before approaching the massacre. The sparse design followed that restraint, allowing drifting snow and voices to carry the emotional weight.

Having also staged work by another Nobel laureate, Svetlana Alexievich, Deliquet said she had explored “how literature and art can approach questions that history has been unable, or has not dared, to address.”

“Through literature, we discover tragedies that history has failed to address and, through voices of those who experienced them, confront human vulnerability and humanity firsthand,” she said. “That is both a privilege and a joy of being an artist.”

The ending also changed. In Avignon, Han made an unexpected appearance to read the final passage. In Seoul, 15-year-old teenage girl Hwang Ju-hyun took her place.

From left, Lee Hye-young, Hwang Ju-hyun and Isabelle Huppert greet audiences after the Korean premiere of a reading play “Oiseau” at Mary Hall at Sogang University in Seoul, Saturday. Courtesy of Seoul Performing Arts Festival

Deliquet said Lee had told her it took decades for the Jeju tragedy to enter textbooks, prompting her to entrust the passage to someone from the generation inheriting that history.

“In France and Europe, too, there are histories that only became known after several generations,” she said.

Huppert drew a parallel with uncovering events long buried in silence during World War II.

“The history that Han Kang addresses is the history of us all and has a universal value,” she said.

For Deliquet, the exchange extends beyond borders and beyond the living.

“Literature and art continue a dialogue between those who are alive and the souls who have departed,” she said.

根据韩江小说《我们永不分离》改编的双语朗读剧《鸟儿》（Oiseau）于周六在西江大学玛丽礼堂举行了韩国首演。伊莎贝尔·于佩尔用法语朗读，李慧英用韩语朗读，将故事中蕴含的友谊和被埋葬的济州岛4月3日悲剧带入了一个温馨的室内空间。作为首尔表演艺术节的一部分，该剧将演出持续至周日。演出中，15岁的黄珠贤朗读了原版阿维尼翁戏剧的结尾，取代了原版的结尾。

该剧的演出场地从教皇宫可容纳约 2000 人的露天荣誉庭院移至首尔可容纳 500 人的室内剧院。

故事讲述了仁善在一次木工事故中失去了两根手指，她请求京河前往济州岛照顾她的鹦鹉。

导演朱莉·德利凯特表示，该剧在讲述大屠杀之前，着重展现了女性之间的友谊和脆弱。

黄柱铉代替韩江在首尔朗读了最后一段，因为制作方希望将这段历史托付给年轻一代。

两种语言都配有字幕，于佩尔朗读法语段落时配有韩语和英语字幕，李朗读韩语段落时配有法语和英语翻译。

发布于2026年10月13日 上午7:00（韩国标准时间）

周六，在首尔西江大学玛丽礼堂，法国女演员伊莎贝尔·于佩尔（右）和李慧英（左）表演了由朱莉·德利凯执导、根据韩江小说《我们永不分离》改编的戏剧《鸟儿》。图片由首尔表演艺术节提供。

在一个几乎空无一物、只剩一片白色的舞台上，演员伊莎贝尔·于佩尔和李慧英营造出一个冰雪覆盖的岛屿。没有树木，没有病床，也没有需要救助的鹦鹉。然而，当这两位法国和韩国演员朗读韩江的小说时，他们的声音和语言便构成了这幅场景：断指隐隐作痛，积雪在看不见的房子周围堆积。

根据诺贝尔文学奖得主韩江的《我们永不分离》改编的双语朗读剧《鸟儿》于周六在西江大学玛丽礼堂举行了韩国首演——恰好是韩江获得诺贝尔文学奖两周年纪念日，韩国文学爱好者亲切地称这一天为“韩江日”。

作为首尔表演艺术节 (SPAF) 的一部分，该剧将 7 月份在阿维尼翁戏剧节的首演从教皇宫可容纳约 2000 人的户外荣誉庭院搬到了可容纳 500 人的室内剧院。

较小的空间反而凸显了它的主要特点：亲密感。

身着白衣的于佩尔和李站在白色幕布前，面前是朗读台。于佩尔用法语为京夏配音，李则用韩语朗读仁善的台词。法语段落配有韩语和英语字幕，而李朗读时则配有法语和英语翻译。

故事以仁善在木工事故中失去两根手指住院开始。她请求朋友京河前往济州岛，在她鹦鹉奄奄一息之前喂饱它。京河在暴风雪中跋涉，逐渐揭开了另一番景象：济州四三惨案中被掩埋的暴力。

于佩尔的法语和李的韩语之间的对比，似乎也让来自韩国本土的京河和来自济州岛的仁善之间的文化距离有了可听见的形式，而没有削弱他们友谊的亲密性。

该剧没有重现暴力场面，而是描绘了痛苦的医疗过程，以及一位母亲在尸体中寻找亲人的场景，这要求观众去想象舞台上没有呈现的内容。

在演出后的新闻发布会上，于佩尔表示，移至室内演出改变了演员之间以及演员与观众之间的关系。

周六，话剧《鸟》（Oiseau）在首尔举行韩国首演后，剧中演员伊莎贝尔·于佩尔、李慧英以及首尔表演艺术节（SPAF）艺术总监崔奎出席了新闻发布会。（图片由SPAF提供）

“在阿维尼翁，我们有大自然的元素相伴，这很独特。但在这里，我们还有别的东西：与观众更加亲近、更加亲密，”她说。

她补充说，韩的作品不受地域限制，依然具有强大的感染力，能够以“另一种强度”触动观众。

李在用母语聆听观众讲话时，也感受到了一种变化。

“观众让戏剧更加完整，”她说。“我能感觉到用母语聆听的观众更加专注于对话。”

导演朱莉·德利凯特表示，她希望在展现屠杀之前，先着重刻画女性之间的友谊和脆弱。简洁的布景设计也体现了这种克制，让飘落的雪花和人声来承载情感的分量。

德利凯特还曾执导过另一位诺贝尔文学奖得主斯韦特兰娜·阿列克谢耶维奇的作品，她说她探索了“文学和艺术如何能够处理历史无法或不敢处理的问题”。

“通过文学，我们发现了历史未能正视的悲剧，并通过亲历者的讲述，直面人类的脆弱和人性的本质，”她说。“这既是作为一名艺术家的荣幸，也是我的乐趣所在。”

结局也做了改动。在阿维尼翁，韩意外现身朗读了最后一段。而在首尔，15岁的少女黄珠贤代替了她的位置。

周六，在首尔西江大学玛丽礼堂举行的朗读剧《鸟》（Oiseau）韩国首演结束后，李慧英、黄珠贤和伊莎贝尔·于佩尔（左起）向观众致意。图片由首尔表演艺术节提供。

德利凯特说，李告诉她，济州岛惨案花了数十年才被写入教科书，这促使她将这段文字委托给继承这段历史的那一代人。

“在法国和欧洲，也有一些历史是在几代人之后才为人所知，”她说。

于佩尔将此事比作揭露二战期间长期被掩盖的事件。

“韩江所讲述的历史就是我们所有人的历史，具有普遍价值，”她说。

对于德利基特来说，交流超越了国界，超越了生命本身。

“文学和艺术延续着生者与逝者之间的对话，”她说。