[On Stage] Jeon Do-yeon Went to Watch a Play to Decline an Offer but Suddenly Decided to Star...

Jeon Do-yeon and Park Hae-soo Star in 'Beotkkotdongsan' Opening in June
"Theater Is Intimidating but Simon Stone's Direction Is Attractive"

Actress Jeon Do-yeon watched director Simon Stone's play Medea on video at the National Theater's Daloreum Theater in November last year. At the beginning of the year, she received an offer from LG Arts Center to appear in Stone's play The Cherry Orchard. She felt burdened. Her last stage play was Taming of the Shrew in 1997. While she was constantly thinking about how to politely decline the offer, she heard that the National Theater was screening Stone's Medea and went to see it. She intended to show enough sincerity by saying "I've seen many works" and then decline the offer. However, the play Medea, with actors showing their bare faces as if completely exposed and the white stage gradually covered in black ashes, was very impressive.

On the 23rd, at the production presentation of the play The Cherry Orchard held at LG Arts Center Signature Hall, Jeon Do-yeon shared her feelings when she saw Medea, saying, "As an actress, I felt the blood flowing, and I thought I should do The Cherry Orchard."

The play she went to see in order to decline the offer ironically became the reason she suddenly decided to appear.

Actress Jeon Do-yeon [Photo by LG Art Center]

Jeon Do-yeon also said she was impressed by Stone's 2021 film The Dig. After that, although she received an offer to appear in The Cherry Orchard, she did not have the courage. She always had a longing for theater but was afraid to fully reveal herself to the audience.

"In movies or dramas, I show a refined version of myself. On the other hand, in theater, I have to show my unrefined, complete self from head to toe, so I lacked confidence. But the director Stone was very attractive. Watching his works, I was fascinated and curious, which led me to decide to appear."

Her memory of appearing in a play 27 years ago is vague.

"It was so long ago that I don't clearly remember how I chose to do theater. I think I made a reckless decision without considering the boundaries between film, theater, and broadcasting. I had to do many things rather than focusing on one, so looking back, I think it was really tough. But as much as it was hard, there was some joy, and I often thought about what I enjoyed."

Jeon Do-yeon has long been recognized as a top-tier actress. She always challenged new roles and performed them excellently. However, she said there are still many roles she has not tried.

"I've been an actress for a long time, and people say I've done various works, but in fact, I think there are many more works I have to do and haven't tried than those I have done. Although The Cherry Orchard is a theatrical genre, I think it is one of the processes of trying something I haven't done rather than a challenge."

From the left, Son Sang-kyu, Jeon Do-yeon, Park Hae-soo [Photo by LG Art Center]

The Cherry Orchard, starring Jeon Do-yeon, will be performed from June 4 to July 7 at LG Arts Center Seoul, Signature Hall. Park Hae-soo plays the male lead and shares the stage with Jeon Do-yeon. Other cast members include Son Sang-gyu, Choi Hee-seo, Lee Ji-hye, Nam Yoon-ho, Yoo Byung-hoon, Park Yoo-rim, Lee Se-jun, and Lee Joo-won.

The Cherry Orchard is a representative and final work of Russia's great writer Anton Chekhov. It is set in late 19th-century Russia, where the aristocratic society was collapsing after the 1861 Emancipation Reform of the Serfs. The protagonist Lyuba is the mistress of a declining noble family and is unaware of worldly affairs. The male lead Lopakhin was born into a family of tenant farmers of the Lyuba family but gained freedom and wealth thanks to the Emancipation Reform. Eventually, Lopakhin buys the cherry orchard owned by the Lyuba family at an auction. The Cherry Orchard is known to have greatly influenced Park Kyung-ni's epic novel Toji.

LG Arts Center's production of The Cherry Orchard is set in Korean society in 2024. All actors are given new Korean names that reinterpret the original characters. Jeon Do-yeon plays Song Do-young, a reinterpretation of the original protagonist Lyuba, and Park Hae-soo plays Hwang Doo-sik, a reinterpretation of Lopakhin. The play begins as Song Do-young (played by Jeon Do-yeon), who left for the United States after her son's death over ten years ago, returns to Korea. The story unfolds as Song Do-young's family faces the imminent loss of the house where they have lived together for a long time.

Jeon Do-yeon said she is both fearful and excited about returning to the theater stage after 27 years.

"If I had thought about what kind of evaluation I should receive through The Cherry Orchard, I wouldn't have chosen this work. Surely, I will make mistakes, but if I were afraid of those mistakes, I wouldn't have decided to appear in the play. I will learn and grow through those mistakes. It wasn't to show my abilities as an actress but because I wanted to participate in a good work. How well the work is evaluated is what matters."