NO EMPTY SEATS

Since his promising debut in 2023 with Rabbit Hunting, which won The Hankook Ilbo New Year's Literary Contest, DAC Artist Kyungheon Lee has been applauded for his delicate yet solid playwriting, despite his relatively short career. Rooted in a keen perception of the world and a compassionate perspective on humanity, his work centres on the inner landscapes of those left behind in the aftermath, rather than the incident itself. No Empty Seats is the final work of his trilogy exploring suicide and its aftermath, following Making the Study Marry and The Emotion Lab. Set in a private high school, the play tracks a student named Ju-eun as she attempts to uncover the causes behind her friend Ye-ji’s suicide. As the new semester approaches, Ju-eun vows revenge against those who are related to Ye-ji’s death. She enters a math catch-up session proposed by her homeroom teacher, Yee-lim, to forge a deceptive connection. However, as the connection between them deepens, her resolve to seek revenge against the teachers falters. Ju-eun finds herself torn between the desire for retribution and the impulse to forgive. The play illuminates the structural paradox in which non-familial suicide loss survivors wound one another in their desperate need to escape guilt. No Empty Seats underscores the necessity of remembering the presence of the absent and confronting the collective grief.