The only play published by Susan Sontag, a sharp intellect in the center of the 20th culture! Published in 1991 by Susan Sontag, the Queen of the New York intellectuals, Alice in Bed unravels on stage with a unique and witty flavor at the hands of Lee Yeon-ju, a theater director celebrated for her explorations of individual lives.

The life of Alice James, an actual 19th-century figure, merges with the novel Alice in Wonderland!

Alice hosts a tea party and invites American critic Margaret Fuller and legendary poet Emily Dickinson—two real-life 19th-century figures—as well as Myrtha from Giselle, and Kundry from Wagner’s Parsifal. Taking famous scenes from Alice in Wonderland as its motifs, this exhilarating play unfolds Alice’s imagination on stage. As borders are torn down by linguistic diversity, we can undoubtedly look forward to seeing much more!

A Diary Written in Bed, A Journey Undertaken in Bed

Bedbound Alice is unable to leave her room. Nevertheless, she travels across time and space through her imagination. In the course of her journey, she meets various characters who live in their own worlds with their own unique voices.

Synopsis

“Out there it is so big.”

“Sometimes I have such old thoughts. My mind makes me feel strong. Makes me master. But I don’t throw myself on anything. I just stay in my lair.”

Alice James, a 19th-century American diarist, was bedbound for many years, suffering from a number of mental and physical conditions, before she died of breast cancer. At that time, hysteria was a common diagnosis for women because there was no set list of symptoms. Both her father, a well-known theologian, and her brother, a novelist, tried to interpret Alice’s condition using their own language. Alice in bed travels across time and space, encountering other women of her time as well as heroines from works of art, and traveling around Rome. At last, she meets a complete stranger who has nothing to do with her, and whom she did not ask for. As she expresses and records her pain in her own language, her vivid voice fills the stage.

Written by Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag was an essayist, novelist and art critic. She came to the forefront with the publication of her first novel The Benefactor (1963) and the essay “Notes on ‘Camp’” (1964). In her critical work Against Interpretation (1966), Sontag argued against the interpretation that separated form from content and high culture from popular culture, which had constituted the traditions of Western aesthetics. Having thus drawn the attention of intellectuals worldwide, she continued to reinvent herself as a playwright, a filmmaker, a theater director, a cultural critic, and then a social activist, thereby establishing herself as ‘the priest of new sensitivity,’ ‘the Queen of the New York intellectuals,’ and ‘the First Lady of popular culture’ in the center of American culture.

Embellished and directed by Lee Yeon-ju

Lee Yeon-ju began working as an external director for Theater Company Ae-in in 2010. Since 2015, she has written and directed a number of works through ‘The Telephone Rings.’ With a focus on the relationship between society and the individual, Lee mainly deals with works that reveal the voices of various individuals.