Kim Hee-ra successfully concluded the final performance of the play "Fleabag" with a bold acting transformation and intense performances.
Actress Kim Hee-ra wrapped up about a three-month run on the 6th at the Doosan Art Center Yeongang Hall in Seoul with the play's final performance. Taking the title role in the Korean premiere, Kim Hee-ra challenged herself with a one-woman play that carried the stage alone, captivating audiences each performance with powerful energy and solid acting.
"Fleabag" is a work by British playwright and actor Phoebe Waller-Bridge that explores modern loneliness and self-destructive desire as black comedy. First shown at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2013, it was later adapted into a TV series and received worldwide acclaim.
In the play, Kim Hee-ra played Fleabag, who runs a guinea pig cafe in London. With unrestrained speech and cynical humor, Fleabag is a character who lives with the loss and guilt of losing a friend, loneliness and self-loathing.
Kim Hee-ra built her own character by vividly portraying Fleabag's unpredictable sudden actions and deeply hidden wounds. She handled high-intensity lines and daring expressions without hesitation, revealing a different side from her previous works.
With sly expressions and gestures and unrestrained lines that drew laughter from the audience, she could in an instant bring out the character's deep loneliness and wounds, freely moving between extremes of emotion. She added depth to the character by convincingly building up the deficiencies and pain behind Fleabag's actions, which could have come across as merely provocative.
Above all, Kim Hee-ra's true worth shone more brightly in the one-woman format that breaths directly with the audience. She improvised questions toward the audience and accepted their reactions, naturally narrowing the distance from the start of the performance. The free communication that continued until the end of the play functioned not only as a mere change of atmosphere but also as a device that actively drew the audience into Fleabag's story.
Starting with lighthearted laughs and gradually revealing loneliness, loss, self-loathing and sincerity in fine detail, Kim Hee-ra's acting pulled the audience into Fleabag's life. By showing the character's unrestrained side and the delicate wounds underneath at the same time, she elicited empathy and immersion.
Having portrayed distinctive characters in a variety of works, Kim Hee-ra expanded her acting spectrum once again through "Fleabag." From carrying the stage alone in a one-woman play to black comedy and a performance style that breathes instantly with the audience, she successfully completed new challenges and proved her potential as an actor not constrained by genre or form.
Kim Hee-ra recalled, "At first, introducing 'Fleabag' in Korea for the first time, and the idea that one person had to carry the stage from beginning to end was a very big challenge. While performing for three months, at some point the feeling of going on stage to meet Fleabag grew bigger than the thought that 'I have to do this work well.'"
She added, "Although one actor stands on stage, it didn't feel like a solo performance. The show is only complete when the audience is present, and that made each performance slightly different," and she expressed gratitude to the audience, saying, "I really thank everyone who came to meet Fleabag during the three months. I want to say that you helped make Fleabag with me."
Finally, addressing Fleabag, she offered a loving farewell, saying, "I want to tell you to rest now. You ran away so hard until now. You don't have to force yourself to be funny anymore, you don't have to pretend to be okay, and if you're lonely you can say you're lonely. I really enjoyed meeting you and I learned a lot."
Having shown an even broader acting spectrum through "Fleabag," Kim Hee-ra will immediately meet audiences in a new work. From today (the 8th) until Oct. 4, she will appear in the musical play "The Brothers Karamazov: Sisters" at Seoul Forest Theater as Ivan, the second of the Karamazov family and a ghostwriter, presenting another transformation.
[Photo] Provided by Gram Entertainment
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