Actor Lee Hye-young is seen during a premiere of “Oiseau” in France on July 15. JOONGANG ILBO Veteran actor Lee Hye-young has spent more than four decades onstage, but her desire for striking out into new territory has hardly faded. Her latest venture takes her into a staged reading based on Nobel laureate Han Kang’s novel “We Do Not Part” (2021). Titled “Oiseau,” the stage-reading production will be presented at the Seoul Performing Arts Festival on Oct. 10 and 11 at Sogang University’s Mary Hall in western Seoul — approximately three months after its world premiere at the Cour d’Honneur of the Palais des Papes, the centerpiece venue of the Festival d’Avignon. The French event is one of the world’s largest and longest-running performing arts festivals. “Performing here will clearly be different from performing for an international audience, and I’m very excited to see how,” Lee said Tuesday at the Arko & Daehakro Arts Theater in Jongno District, central Seoul. 모바일야마토5게임 French director Julie Deliquet adapted “Oiseau,” the first of the novel’s three sections, titled “Bird” in English, into a staged reading. Isabelle Huppert, who performed alongside Lee at the Avignon premiere, will also travel to Korea for the Seoul performances. Lee plays Inseon in Korean, and Isabelle Huppert plays Kyungha in French. Lee believes audiences may find different moments resonating with them, and to different degrees, depending on their native language. The story opens on a winter morning with a message from Inseon, who lives on Jeju Island, to her longtime friend Kyungha. Inseon asks Kyungha to look after the small white parakeet she leaves at home while she is hospitalized. Kyungha sets out for Jeju through a fierce snowstorm. Her journey to care for the bird soon leads her through the memories of Inseon’s family and into the tragedy of the Jeju April 3 Uprising. From left, actor Lee Hye-young, author Han Kang and French actor Isabelle Huppert receive applause after the premiere of “Oiseau,” a staged reading based on Han’s novel “We Do Not Part” (2021), in Avignon, France, on July 15. 바다이야기 거북이 YONHAP The Jeju Massacre began in 1948, when separate governments were established in South and North Korea. Armed insurgents attacked police stations on April 3 to protest elections in the South and the U.S. military presence. About 3,000 people died in the initial crackdown, with the toll rising to as many as 20,000 by September 1954. “‘Bird’ focuses only on the novel’s first section, so relatively few scenes depict the historical events themselves,” said Lee. “What it captures instead is the friendship between the two women and the fragility of human beings.” Lee recalled her first — yet emotional — rehearsal. “I remember our first rehearsal, in a space smaller than the actual stage, when we performed a scene in which Inseon and Kyungha share memories from their past,” said Lee. “Lying down together, we quietly talk about food the two characters used to share, the times they ran away from home and the pain their mothers had caused them. 바다게임이야기 The emotions suddenly came rushing in as we performed it. Even the staff watching told us they had been moved to tears.” With little experience in staged readings, Lee admitted she had initially underestimated what the production would demand of her. Audience seats are densely filled during a premiere of “Oiseau,” based on Han Kang's novel “We Do Not Part” (2021), in France on July 15. YONHAP “I thought all I had to do was come in and read the book, but I soon realized that wasn’t it,” said Lee. “I met Julie briefly in Korea before the Avignon rehearsals, and she told me to dress and think like Inseon, a carpenter and documentary filmmaker. In a way, she was asking me to inhabit the character fully. That was when the pressure really hit me. I left Korea weighed down by the thought that I had to get it right. By then, I already felt like the weakened Inseon.” The production also reunited Lee with Huppert, her co-star in Hong Sang-soo’s film “A Traveler’s Needs” (2024). 황금성게임공략방법 Lee said working with the French actor again proved a learning experience. “What struck me about Isabelle from the start was how cool she was,” said Lee. “When we were making the film, she would turn up with a single suitcase and no manager. This time, she told me she had read the script just once before coming to Avignon. But over three days of rehearsals, her performance improved before my eyes.” Nobel laureate Han Kang speaks to reporters in Avignon, France, on July 15. YONHAP Lee also pointed to Huppert’s strong communication skills. “What also stayed with me was how precisely she communicated what she needed from the staff, including help following the Korean dialogue on the prompter,” Lee said. “I used to think I had to be good at everything on my own. She knew how to collaborate.” Actor Lee Hye-young NEW Author Han herself appeared toward the end of the Avignon performance to deliver a reading, but she will not take the stage in Seoul. “The passage Han read really captures the essence of what this work is about,” said Lee. 황금성하는곳 “She read it so plainly, without projecting any emotion, in this soft, cotton-candy-like voice. I found it remarkable.” The reader for the Korean performances has apparently yet to be decided. “The passage could come across completely differently depending on who delivers it,” she added. Lee has spent decades moving between stage and screen. She has appeared in the Korean productions of musicals “The Sound of Music” (1981) and “Jesus Christ Superstar” (2000-01); the plays “The Hymn of Death” (1988) and “Hedda Gabler” (2012, 2025); the television series “I’m Sorry, I Love You” (2004); and the films “No Blood No Tears” (2002) and “The Old Woman with the Knife” (2024). Yet there is one role she still hopes to take on. “Someday, I’d like to play the lead in a story about a woman who never fulfilled her dream of becoming a musical actor,” said Lee. “Musical actors sing so incredibly well these days that what I do might not even sound like singing.” She laughed. “But I still want to do a musical again. I want to become a dream for people like me who are still dreaming.” BY CHOI MIN-JI [] te governm