Lee Ja-ram, a veteran pansori singer with over three decades of experience, is facing one of her most challenging performances yet in the one-woman play "Prima Facie." The 46-year-old performer, who also works as a musical performer, writer, director and actor, prepares for each show by repeating a single mantra in the darkness before stepping into the spotlight: "I am Tessa Jane Ensler."

While Lee is no stranger to commanding the stage alone - pansori traditionally features a single singer accompanied only by a gosu drummer - "Prima Facie" has presented entirely new challenges. "There's nothing to lean on," Lee explained in a recent group interview with reporters. "It's my first time being onstage without using sori (song). I was completely alone. With pansori, I can rely on my voice - I just practice and perfect it. But here, as Tessa, I didn't even know what to practice."

"Prima Facie," written in 2019 by Australian playwright and human rights lawyer Suzie Miller, is an intense 120-minute monologue that follows Tessa, a brilliant and ambitious lawyer whose deep faith in the legal system crumbles after she becomes a victim of sexual assault. The play chronicles her grueling 782-day legal battle as her belief in justice completely collapses.

Since its premiere, the production has sparked global conversations about gender and justice while earning major theater awards, including the 2023 Tony and Olivier Awards. In the Korean production, three actresses - Lee, Kim Shin-rok, and Cha Ji-yeon - share the demanding role of Tessa in rotation.

Lee described the preparation process as uniquely challenging. "Every project throws a different hurdle," she said. "Once you clear it, you reach the flag. This one felt like the highest hurdle yet. Because the play deals so directly with violence, I had to digest it slowly and carefully. I used my time more intensely than ever."

Initially, Lee viewed the work as personally significant as her first one-woman show, but once she began performing, she recognized its broader impact. "When I finally met the audience, I realized what it meant for this production to be staged here, in the middle of South Korea - how significant that is," she explained. "I can't avoid stories that hit so close to home. I think my job is to find where my experience as a woman and as an artist meets that universal empathy. My task is to figure out what 'well' means in this time, as a woman and as an artist."

Despite being billed as a one-woman show, Lee emphasized that the creative process was collaborative rather than isolating. "At first, I carried everything as a private burden. But once Kim, Cha and I began sharing our thoughts, we became each other's anchors," she said.

The play's emotional impact extends well beyond the final curtain call, often provoking strong reactions from audiences. Lee recalled one particularly telling moment: "After one performance, I heard someone say, 'But you know, there are women who lie.' And I thought, that's exactly why we need this play. The stage shows only a flicker of hope and then hands the baton to the audience, inviting them to continue the conversation."

"Prima Facie" continues its run through November 2 at the Chungmu Arts Center in Seoul, offering Korean audiences the opportunity to engage with this powerful exploration of justice, gender, and the legal system.