To you, lingering at the door of the bunker,
Not long ago, I went to see the musical <The Last Man> for a performance featuring actress Hong Na-hyeon. The subject matter — a zombie apocalypse — was heavy, and there was a trigger warning, so honestly, I was a little scared going in.
But after watching it, what stayed with me wasn't fear. It was a quiet, warm sense of comfort.
So for those who haven't had the chance to encounter this work yet,
I want to talk about why the story unfolding inside that small bunker feels like such a consolation.
If you want to live, you have to run — if you don't want to die, you have to keep moving
<The Last Man> is a one-person musical that tells the final story of a lone survivor left behind in underground bunker B-103, after a zombie virus has wiped out humanity.
On stage, there is only one actor — and "Jonber," a companion doll the survivor has made by hand.
The survivor speaks to the audience through a self-cam, as if keeping a survival log, pressing on through each day.
Listening to that voice — barely above silence — you feel your heart ache at the simple fact that this person is still alive.
The show began as a web musical that won the grand prize at the Seoul Arts Company competition, had its premiere in 2021, and is now being performed in several countries abroad.
You are not alone
At its core, this work is a story about dying alone in isolation — dressed up in the costume of a zombie apocalypse.
It is the feeling of being "cut off" from a society where no one is listening. What hurts the survivor most is the knowledge that not a single person wonders how they are doing.
The reason this work resonated so deeply is that it didn't feel like a distant story at all.
Now that "solitary death among young people" is no longer just a phrase you read in the news,
the image of someone alone in their room, turning on a self-cam, recording the day, waiting for someone to reply — it's a scene all too familiar to people in their twenties and thirties.
Perhaps <The Last Man> isn't a disaster drama set in some distant future, but something that seeps in quietly — like the story of each of our own private bunkers, right now.
The same story, a different survival _ "I want to live. There's still so much I want to do."
What struck me after seeing the show is that every actor brings a completely different interpretation — a different way of surviving — to the role of Jonja.
The character of the survivor is not fixed from the start. Age, place of birth, the life lived before — all of it is interpreted differently depending on the actor.
So even when the same song rises from the same spot on stage, each performer fills that moment with an entirely different story.
Even Jonber — the companion who stays by the survivor's side — is born looking different with each actor. And whether the survivor ultimately opens the bunker door and steps out, or turns back to where they first came in, is left entirely to the actor's choice.
So as you walk out of the theater after the show, you carry your own interpretation with you — your own version of the ending.
Same stage, same bunker — yet the moment the cast changes, you find yourself face to face with an entirely different person living an entirely different life.
And that is why, even after seeing it once, you find yourself wanting to return to that door again and again.
I am someone worthy of being loved
I saw <The Last Man> as a "Kong-Jonja" performance — a show featuring actress Hong Na-hyeon. Her survivor was a "youth aging out of care."
The performance captures the story of a young person on the verge of leaving the shelter system and stepping out into the world alone.
It was heartbreaking to see a child rendered suddenly, completely alone — simply because they had turned eighteen.
Hong Na-hyeon's Jonber has names written on its belly and feet in different handwriting,
and the actress has said she left them there as a trace of all the children who had once claimed this doll as their own — the way a child in Toy Story writes their name on a toy to say it belongs to them.
Details like the drawing of "our home" made it clear just how deeply the actress had researched and inhabited her character.
Just because it's billed as a zombie story and a survival drama doesn't mean it's all fear and high drama.
To keep loneliness at bay, the survivor trades jokes with the audience in first person,
finds warmth in a single Choco Pie, has an animated conversation with Jonber —
watching how this solitary fighter chooses to survive is one of the real pleasures of seeing this show.
Hong Na-hyeon's survivor spoke not only to youth aging out of care, but also to college students just beginning their twenties.
Having not long ago started standing on my own two feet,
I had simply accepted it as normal — the absence of parents, spending birthdays alone. The performance gently told me that was okay,
that I am someone worthy of being loved, and that it's alright to lean on others. It felt like being held in a warm embrace.
To those knocking on that door for the first time,
<The Last Man> is a rock musical, so the energy of the songs is quite intense —
rather than expecting only quiet comfort, it's better to go in ready for your emotions to surge and swell.
Since it's a one-person show, every breath and every glance from the actor carries the entire production — so if you can, I'd recommend sitting toward the front right of the stage.
The show has continued season after season in Korea, with reading performances in New York and Tokyo,
and the news that it is now making its way to the London stage
speaks to the fact that the loneliness inside this small bunker is a story that resonates with so many people — one that can reach across borders and knock on anyone's heart.
It is the story of just one person left behind, and yet — strangely — when it's over, you don't feel alone.
The musical <The Last Man> is currently running at Link the Space Hall 1 in Hyehwa, through August 9th.
You can also watch the survivor's self-cam footage in real time on the YouTube channel B-103.
I think it's because there is a survivor living through today — and the show wants to let as many survivors as possible see that they are not the only one.
"If you need help, come find me. If you need a friend, come find me. If anyone is out there listening to this song, please reach out. You are not alone. You are not alone."
— For those in their own bunkers, somewhere out there, alone _ from <The Last Man> M14, "You Are Not Alone"
