{"id":11537,"date":"2025-10-15T12:16:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T10:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yun-berlin.com\/journal\/?p=11537"},"modified":"2025-12-08T12:27:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T11:27:55","slug":"marie-schleef-and-kotti-yun-slow-it-down-in-the-vegetarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yun-berlin.com\/journal\/marie-schleef-and-kotti-yun-slow-it-down-in-the-vegetarian\/","title":{"rendered":"MARIE SCHLEEF AND KOTTI YUN SLOW IT DOWN IN THE VEGETARIAN"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Korean author <\/span>Han Kang won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2024<\/span><\/a>, Vienna\u2019s <\/span>Burgtheater<\/span><\/a> had already secured the rights to stage the first <\/span>German adaptation<\/span><\/a> of her best-selling novel <\/span>The Vegetarian, <\/span><\/i>which premiered on 9 May 2025. The move was a clear sign of Berlin-based director <\/span>Marie Schleef\u2019s<\/span><\/a> uncanny instinct for the stories audiences crave to see\u2014those about female transformation. \u201cI was looking for a text in which a woman turns into something other than a human and came across an article about this novel where she [wants to] become a tree,\u201d Marie tells me. \u201cI just fell in love with it because it tackled on such a beautiful level the idea of reincarnation as another form of existence.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re spending a warm September afternoon at <\/span>Amato<\/span><\/a>, a Japanese-inspired ice cream and pastry caf\u00e9 in Berlin\u2019s Prenzlauer Berg, where natural stone and pale wood create a quiet, cocoon-like warmth. Across from Marie sits <\/span>Kotti Yun<\/span><\/a>, Berlin-based film and theater actress, as well as the play\u2019s lead. Between them, a small parade of desserts, including the zingy vegan Yuzu cake and an ube cheesecake, turns our conversation into something light\u2014much to the contrast of the content of the story we are here to discuss.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Han Kang\u2019s 2007 novel <\/span>The Vegetarian<\/span><\/i> follows Yeong-hye, a seemingly ordinary woman from Seoul whose decision to stop eating meat after a haunting dream spirals into an act of radical defiance against her family and society. Marie, who does two productions a year focused on stories written by women, became fascinated with the novel because it \u201clooked at women in a different way than Western literature does.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On paper, the novel\u2019s triptych structure seems perfectly suited to the stage, but the production, though truthful in its adaptation, wasn\u2019t an easy fit. This is the second time Marie has tried to acquire the stage rights from Han Kang, who had previously declined. Perhaps Marie\u2019s \u201clove letter\u201d\u2014or the fact that this time, the request came from one of the largest theaters in the German-speaking world\u2014eventually changed her mind. But more importantly, its physical and psychological nudity, as well as its flashes of brutal violence made it a fragile undertaking. Marie felt the pressure to get it right.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Casting her \u201ctalented friend\u201d Kotti as the lead (they had previously collaborated on the production of <\/span>Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982<\/span><\/i>, an adaptation of Cho Nam-Joo\u2019s million-selling novel that premiered in Cologne in 2023) helped her unlock the direction in which she wanted the play to go. \u201cIt had a lot to do with her acting style that\u2019s quite reserved,\u201d Marie explains. \u201cI felt like she\u2019s the perfect person to play the main character.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For Kotti, who studied acting in both Seoul and Berlin, the role demanded meticulous preparation. Physically, dance and yoga helped her sustain the several-minute headstand that anchors the third act. For character development, she read the novel <\/span>eight<\/span> times, in both Korean and German, searching for a way into the soul of a protagonist who exists largely through the perception of others. She managed to find the essence of both Yeong-hye and her older sister, In-hye, partly through research, partly through her own memories of growing up in Korea. \u201cI know this feeling of not owning your life,\u201d Kotti remembers, tapping into poetic descriptions that mirror Han\u2019s prose. \u201cIt was like looking at both sides of the moon. In-hye is trying to fit in and always doing her best. But she also has a dark side that Yeong-hye is living out. So there\u2019s this dualism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The tension is palpable, as Kotti possesses a quiet gravity on stage. Even when she isn\u2019t in the spotlight, she commands full attention, so much so that it feels almost wrong to look away. \u201cShe dares to \u2018do\u2019 little on stage which is really hard,\u201d Marie praises her. <\/span><\/p>\n

“You have to have the strength to think that what you\u2019re doing is enough, and Kotti is somebody who can fill an entire room by just standing there.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

The two-hour production unfolds from a script barely fifteen pages long (most average between sixty and ninety), its dialogue sparse but concise and deliberate. The entire play is performed in slow motion (the speech, mercifully, is not). It\u2019s a technique Marie enjoys and has used in other productions like <\/span>ER PUTZT <\/span><\/i>(<\/span>HE CLEANS<\/span><\/i>) or <\/span>Are You Ready to Die?<\/span><\/i>: \u201cWhen you slow it all down, you really get to watch everything very carefully.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The pacing seemed to mirror Yeong-hye\u2019s inner state, with her mind slowly slipping into dissociation. \u201cOr how <\/span>the others<\/span><\/i> perceive her and try to involve themselves in her life,\u201d Marie counters. \u201cOnce you enter the orbit of someone who is dealing with depression, it does something to you and your perception of time. You can\u2019t really reach that person.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I wonder what it must have felt like to prepare for such a serious performance without slipping into goofiness that slow motion can unintentionally provoke. Marie, ever resistant to uniformity, urged her actors to find their own rhythm\u2014but perhaps the key was hidden in the book\u2019s very cadence. \u201cWhile researching Han, I had the sense that she was somehow living the slowness of <\/span>The Vegetarian<\/span><\/i>, because she\u2019s such a thoughtful person,\u201d Kotti explains. \u201cIt feels as if she\u2019s always slowly searching for the right words. You can see it in how she writes, how she researches, how she shapes her stories. That discovery was fascinating to me, and it helped me find Yeong-hye.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Marie recalls watching early interviews with Han in English, where the author, fittingly, reflected on how when you slow things down, the entire world seems to move in slow motion. That moment sealed her vision. \u201cI remember thinking, wow, this really is the perfect fit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, the technique seems to work as a meditation against speed and convenience, our cultural demand for immediacy, so to speak. It slows down time, forcing the audience to confront their own discomfort of sitting in stillness, which, as I witnessed, some are better at managing than others. \u201cThe intention is never to offend or to shock anyone,\u201d Marie points out. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut entertainment also doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that something needs to be easily digestible. The beauty of theater is you sit in a room with many people which is quite rare to do nowadays. It\u2019s a luxury in the times we live in.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

The stage design of <\/span>The Vegetarian<\/span><\/i> unfolds like a slow metamorphosis\u2014from the stark, clinical white of the opening to a TV room flickering with abstract, artful videos, and finally to the lush abundance of a verdant garden teeming with plants. It\u2019s a striking counterpoint to Yeong-hye\u2019s increasingly withdrawn inner world: the further she drifts from reality, the richer and more enveloping the scenery becomes. The play is framed by video installations that capture her dream sequences\u2014the only moments when we hear the protagonist\u2019s inner voice, rendered with the same haunting precision as in the novel. For this, Marie collaborated with video artist Lillian Canright, who spent a year traveling the world, including Japan and the U.S., capturing footage of trees, plants, and slaughterhouses. Set and costume design were entrusted to Lina Oanh Nguy\u1ec5n and Ji Hyung Nam, respectively. Marie emphasizes their creative autonomy: \u201cIt\u2019s important to give your team as much trust as possible. It\u2019s really about the <\/span>Gesamtkunstwerk<\/span><\/i>, we all do it together. That\u2019s why I love theater. It\u2019s not just a singular art form. I need all these other people to make it happen, and when we work, I\u2019m like wow, I\u2019m so not alone in this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Both Marie and Kotti have a very dynamic and busy career, and though they are based in Berlin, the work keeps sending them abroad. In contrast to many others, who come here to satiate their creative urges, for these two the city is the place they unwind. \u201cSomehow it\u2019s become standard that I don\u2019t work in Berlin,\u201d Kotti jokes. \u201cWhen I\u2019m here, I\u2019m in my own cozy world, where I spend time with my kid and do my physical training.\u201d But there is also a more sobering reason, she says, which has to do with \u201cthe abatement of cultural budgets,\u201d which makes it difficult to find projects in Berlin.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also hard, I think, to work in the city where you live,\u201d Marie adds. \u201cOur job isn\u2019t nine-to-five. I don\u2019t go home and just switch off. The two worlds start to blur.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Marie, who started her professional journey at Bard College in NYC, has just returned from a three-month stay in Kyoto, where she lived with a robot as part of an experiment on loneliness (but that\u2019s a story for another time). Back in Europe, she\u2019s already in motion again, fresh from Switzerland, where her play <\/span>Are You Ready to Die?<\/span><\/i>\u2014a haunting meditation on the final year of Joan of Arc\u2019s imprisonment\u2014premiered at Schauspielhaus Z\u00fcrich on September 19. Next up: <\/span>The Lottery<\/span><\/i>, inspired by Shirley Jackson\u2019s short story, opening on February 28, 2026 at the theater in Essen.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Kotti, who is used to TV projects materializing just three or four weeks in advance, <\/span>The Vegetarian<\/span><\/i> offers partial stability. With the Burgtheater announcing further additional dates through the end of the year, Kotti will be commuting to Vienna for as long as the play remains in rotation. \u201cIt can go on for a year, for two, for ten. We don\u2019t know,\u201d Marie says with a shrug. Kotti agrees: \u201cYou never know what comes next.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Thankfully, both women are more than equipped for the unknown. In fact, I\u2019d even dare to assume they prefer it that way.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kotti wears Niklas in Gold and Marie wears Gale in Havana Tortoise.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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