Review: The Vegetarian by Han Kang at Thalia Theater Hamburg
- South Korean author Han Kang’s acclaimed 2007 novel “The Vegetarians” has been adapted for the stage at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg’s Gaußstraße, exploring themes of violence against...
- In the Hamburg production, the character of Yeong-Hye remains visually absent or hidden behind a gauze curtain, existing primarily as text voiced alternately by Bernd Grawert, Jannik Hinsch,...
- Han Kang’s original text, which earned the Man Booker International Prize in 2016 and preceded the author's 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, connects societal complicity in mass animal...
South Korean author Han Kang’s acclaimed 2007 novel “The Vegetarians” has been adapted for the stage at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg’s Gaußstraße, exploring themes of violence against women, societal compliance, and a radical rejection of humanity. Directed by Lilja Rupprecht with stage and costume design by Korbinian Schmidt, the production examines the psychological unravelling of protagonist Yeong-Hye after she experiences a disturbing dream about blood and raw meat.
Stage Adaptation of the Man Booker International Prize-Winning Novel
In the Hamburg production, the character of Yeong-Hye remains visually absent or hidden behind a gauze curtain, existing primarily as text voiced alternately by Bernd Grawert, Jannik Hinsch, Caroline Junghanns, and Patrick Bimazubute. Reviewer Eileen Heerdegen notes that the staging creates a mystische, anstrengende atmosphere, though some casting choices—such as the bullige Bernd Grawert wearing a butcher’s apron—struggle to convey the delicate inner life of the protagonist. The narrative centers on Yeong-Hye’s sudden decision to stop consuming and preparing animal products, reject household duties like ironing, and refuse sexual advances from her husband, played by Bimazubute. The husband admits in the text that he chose an unassuming, colourless woman due to deep-seated inferiority complexes, showing contempt rather than affection. When Yeong-Hye discards a kitchen full of frozen pork bellies, beef fillets, eels, and squids following her nightmare involving hundreds of bloody meat carcasses on bamboo poles, her actions spark extreme hostility. During a family dinner, relatives attempt to force-feed her meat violently, and she faces regular abuse from her husband.
The Thematic Focus on Resistance and Gender Violence
Han Kang’s original text, which earned the Man Booker International Prize in 2016 and preceded the author’s 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, connects societal complicity in mass animal slaughter with systemic hostility and violence against women in South Korea. The staging reinforces these motifs by transforming the actors into fragile climbing plants while utilizing a massive, expanding fabric structure that acts as a shimmering projection surface. Despite the ambition of the production’s surreal design elements, the dense source material occasionally translates into a confusing and soporific theatrical experience. The emotional anchor of the performance emerges toward the end, where Caroline Junghanns delivers a powerful solo as In-Hye, desperately trying to keep her sister Yeong-Hye alive as she subsists solely on water.