The Vegetarian
Scenes from the novel by Han Kang

Yeong-hye is a devoted housewife in Seoul. She lives a quiet, ordinary life with her husband, a man of rather dim aspirations. Her primary concern is maintaining her household in meticulous order. Only one day, she sees a dream drenched in blood. Upon waking, without any explanation, she frantically throws all the meat from the freezer. “I had a dream,” she repeats. And decides to become a vegetarian.

Her normal life, as she knew it, begins to unravel. She faces rejection from her immediate family, followed by their outright hostility, as this “rebellious” act may prove debilitating in a country like hers. Other acts of passive resistance follow, which ultimately turn her family against her. Gradually, Yeong-hye morphs into something else, as she dreams of living like a plant, of becoming a tree. The entire world around her is affected by her transformation. Yeong-hye does not want to stop living. She just wants to stop living like the rest of us, belonging to a humankind that is everything she refuses to be—harmful, murderous, and violent.

The performance is based on the titular novel by Nobel laureate Han Kang (Man Booker International 2016). In its pages, the writer sketches a diagram of violence—physical, psychological, or political—through a family portrait that culminates in a dark allegory of power, obsession, and the struggle of a woman to free herself from both external and internal violence. A profound success upon its first publication in Seoul in 2007, The Vegetarian has achieved an international resonance, having been translated into 32 languages.

Deflorian distils the power of Kang’s masterpiece into a theatrical elixir. Like a walker on a tightrope, she fuses the most mundane aspects of life with dreamlike, neurotic or even fantastical instances that simply flash with brilliance on stage. Through a sensual and provocative stage language, she turns this Kafkaesque universe into a breathing and pulsating work of art, crucially aided by the remarkable performances of her collaborators.

The theatrical adaptation of The Vegetarian stands as a testament to theatre’s power of conviction. In Deflorian’s directorial approach—one of the most distinctive artistic voices in the Italian and European theatre world—the story casts a controlled effect upon the audience, leaving them transformed after the curtain call, captivated by the poisonous allure of a universe they never expected to affect them so profoundly.

Daria Deflorian is an actress, dramaturg, and theatre director. She is regarded as one of the most original voices in Italian and European theatre. In 2012, she won the prestigious Ubu Award (Best Actress), Italy's highest theatrical honour. In 2013, she was distinguished with the equally significant Hystrio Award for her overall contribution to theatre. As an actress, she has collaborated with notable figures such as Nanni Moretti, Stéphane Braunschweig, Lotte Van Den Berg, and Massimiliano Civica. From 2008 to 2021, she worked with Antonio Tagliarini. Their productions, staged across Italy and Europe, have garnered numerous accolades, including the Premio Ubu (Best New Italian Play) in 2014, the Best Foreign Production Award in Canada in 2015, the Premio Riccione for Innovation in Theatre in 2019, and the Premio Hystrio for Best Play in 2021.