(LLC) Show&Tell Play, (Co., Ltd.) Wisdom Entertainment

Actor Jin So-yeon completed her run as Na Hye-seok in the play ‘Hymn of Death’, leaving a deep afterglow with a delicate yet densely layered emotional arc.

In the play ‘Hymn of Death’, which closed on Monday, March 2, Jin So-yeon took on the role of Na Hye-seok, imprinting a self-directed woman ahead of her time with striking clarity on stage. Even amid wavering, her refusal to lose her own voice and her free, rich expressiveness propelled the character along her emotional trajectory, and the afterglow lingered beyond the final curtain.

Set against the upheaval of the 1920s, ‘Hymn of Death’ begins at the moment when Na Hye-seok, betrayed by a relationship she believed was love, returns to Joseon and, facing divorce, stands on a bridge. After a chance encounter with Romi, their conversation about ‘true freedom’ expands the narrative, and Na Hye-seok moves beyond merely conveying the past to lead the entire work as a narrator who poses questions from the present.

The Na Hye-seok portrayed by Jin So-yeon was a figure beyond the label of ‘the first female Western-style painter of Joseon’. She stood on stage as an artist who never stopped questioning the freedom the times did not permit, and as someone who sought to take responsibility for her own feelings and choices.

Especially in the scene where she and Romi share their lives, Na Hye-seok does not leave her wounds as mere lament. Even amid instability, she raises life back up without losing her own voice, creating the power for the audience to meet her not as a name in history but with the feelings of the present.

Jin So-yeon constructed Na Hye-seok with dimensionalityher agency and surges of feelingthrough clear projection and energy, and through breathing and tempo that shift from scene to scene. When emotion erupted, she drove forward without hesitation; when enduring collapse, she held with gaze and silence, setting the rhythm of the character.

And with free, abundant expressiveness, she made the language of ‘Na Hye-seok’ come alive on stage. Rather than a merely strong figure, she completed a character in whom wound and courage, solitude and conviction move together, naturally carrying the questions the work poses into the audience today.

Jin So-yeon said, “I successfully completed the play ‘Hymn of Death’. Crossing the time of the 1920s on stage and being able to portray Na Hye-seok held great meaning for me, and the focus and support you sent from the seats at every performance became the strength that carried each scene to the end. To all the actors·staff who made the stage together, and to all audience members, I offer my sincere thanks. Although the performance has ended, like Na Hye-seok, who never gave up on life, I too will be cheering for you today and tomorrow.”

The play ‘Hymn of Death’ concluded its run at the Sejong Center M Theater from January 30 (Fri), 2026 to March 2 (Mon).