“Is your lover coming today?”

At three o’clock in the afternoon, her lover arrives. At six in the evening, her husband returns.
A peculiar couple exchanges polite smiles and courteous greetings, even as they openly acknowledge each other’s secrets. Beneath their elegant conversation, an invisible tension pulses, and sharp fragments of truth begin to seep through. Slowly, cracks appear in the flawless mask of a seemingly perfect marriage.

The Lover offers a new interpretation of Harold Pinter’s work, combining his signature cool, restrained dialogue and charged silences with director Kim Hyuntak’s distinctive perspective and incisive sensibility. Threats and anxieties hidden within everyday conversation, along with the suffocating atmosphere created by silence, fill the stage. The two actors fluidly cross roles and boundaries, vividly embodying the complex dynamics of a relationship where power and desire intersect.

As music plays, identities begin to sway; the rhythm of power is etched by the sound of high heels; and shards of truth suddenly erupt from moments of silence, luring the audience into an unpredictable fog. Watching this dangerous game unfold, we inevitably recall a certain “respectable couple” from our own reality. What secret truths lie hidden behind their refined façade? And what does this story of a “lover,” played out on the stage of power, ultimately whisper to us?

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| Synopsis |

One summer afternoon, in a secluded house near the palace, a married couple appears to be enjoying a peaceful day.

Then, within their seemingly affectionate and ordinary conversation, the word “lover” surfaces. As the dialogue continues, the presence of the lover grows increasingly significant, and the couple begins to debate this impossible-to-ignore figure.

The clock chimes three times. At last, the lover arrives at the couple’s home. The wife, now dressed in a man’s suit, approaches him…