Source: Dong-A Ilbo · 문화연예

What happened

According to Dong-A Ilbo, Kim Gyeong-ran, 49, a former KBS announcer, returns to the Daehak-ro stage in a new psychological thriller. Performance group Geukdan Jeongseong announced on August 27 that it will present Empty House (Korean: Binjip) from September 10 through October 18 at Jizzle Small Theater in Jongno-gu, Seoul.

The headline cast news is Kim’s rotation in the lead role of Gyeong-hee, a novelist writing alone in an isolated forest house — but Dong-A’s reporting also frames the run as a triple-cast thriller with named alternates across every major part.

The breakdown

Dong-A outlines the plot as a memory-and-guilt puzzle, not a jump-scare horror piece:

• Setup: Gyeong-hee lives and writes in a remote woodland home. One night a stranger, Ji-eun, arrives. Ji-eun says she is a longtime fan and will stay only briefly.
• Turn: Ji-eun knows details from a cliff incident in Gyeong-hee’s novel and appears to pierce secrets Gyeong-hee has hidden. After her arrival, hallucinations and mysterious voices repeat, and the line between fiction and reality collapses.
• Theme: The work probes distorted memory and guilt, according to Dong-A’s summary of the company line.

Cast rotations (all named in Dong-A):

• Gyeong-hee: Kim Gyeong-ran, Kim Jin-ju, Kim Tae-in
• Ji-eun: Kim Min-ji, Son Jae-i
• Dong-hun: Kang Ji-hoon, Jo Shin-hwi, Yang Yeong-mun

Kim Gyeong-ran’s prior stage credits listed by Dong-A include The World Is a Beautiful Audrey, Forest of Memory, Exclusive Creative Domain, and The Seagull — a résumé the paper uses to underline that her broadcast career did not end her theater work.

A Geukdan Jeongseong representative told Dong-A that Empty House goes beyond simple fear to unpack loss, guilt, and memories humans prefer to avoid, rendered as a psychological thriller. Audiences, the company said, will follow Gyeong-hee’s viewpoint to trace what is real versus what is constructed memory and approach a hidden truth.

Ticket prices, showtimes, and runtime are not reported in Dong-A’s article.

Why it matters outside Korea

Korea exports K-drama suspense far more easily than intimate Daehak-ro chamber thrillers, yet Dong-A’s calendar slot shows how ex-broadcast anchors still route credibility through small Jongno black boxes rather than TV comeback arcs alone. For English readers tracking Seoul’s fall theater season, the piece marks a September–October anchor date in a venue type tourists often miss while booking large musical imports — and it signals continued appetite for meta-fiction onstage (novelist-as-protagonist, reality slippage) in a market saturated with streaming thrillers.

What travelers and expats should watch

• Venue and dates: Jizzle Small Theater, Jongno-gu — September 10–October 18, 2026. Daehak-ro sits on Line 4 (Hyehwa Station); plan for Korean-language performance unless the company publishes surtitles (not mentioned by Dong-A).
• Cast lottery: Three actors rotate Gyeong-hee, including Kim Gyeong-ran — check the daily cast board or ticketing page before buying if you are attending for a specific performer; Dong-A does not list which dates each actor plays.
• Genre expectations: The company explicitly pitches psychological unraveling over straight horror — useful if you are comparing the show to English-language haunted-house tourism or Netflix-style jump scares.

Context

Read this as a triple-cast Daehak-ro psychological thriller using a novelist’s blurred reality as its engine, not a celebrity vanity concert, a KBS nostalgia event, or a franchise musical. Dong-A’s through-line — former national broadcaster voice on a black-box stage dissecting guilt and fabricated memory — is the insight: Korea still treats trusted announcer personas as legitimate theater draws when the material asks the audience to audit what they believe they saw.

Source

Dong-A Ilbo · 문화연예: “김경란 전 KBS 아나운서, 무대 오른다…스릴러 연극 ‘빈집’ 9월 개막” — Korean original; run dates, venue, plot summary, cast rotations, Kim Gyeong-ran’s listed credits, and Geukdan Jeongseong quotation from Dong-A; paraphrased for briefing; read the original for photos and full Korean text.