The Trial by Steven Berkoff is an incredibly challenging play to perform. It is a play with dark undertones that arise from the confusion and insanity that K is thrown into. At the beginning of our rehearsals I felt that it would be a good idea to research past productions of the play and discover how other theatre companies have tackled the play.
I came across a company called Blackeyed Theatre. The company is a touring troupe that was established in 2004.On their website they state that ‘The company specialise in reviving modern classics and staging established titles in innovative ways’ (Blackeyed Theatre 2012, p. 2). It was the notion that they are innovative that compelled me to look further into this particular production.
Whilst exploring their work I came across a short clip of their performance on YouTube:
What is interesting about their performance is that they have explored The Trial in a similar way to us. They have opted to use a minimal set and chose frames for the actors to look through and move around on stage during the show. In this way the world of the play becomes mutated as frames are used to create the course Joseph K takes on his journey to the law. The actors’ physicalisation is exaggerated and which coincides with the grotesqueness of the chorus.
In another clip we can observe an interview between Blackeyed Theatre’s artistic director Adrien McDougall and Simon Wegrzyn, the company’s Joseph K:
Wegrzyn highlights how the company tried to keep the performance ‘as universal as possible’, which allowed the show to be accessible to people from all different backgrounds. In our own company we want to reach out to people who do not visit the theatre and bring them to our performance. Having Joseph K being presented as a normal person amongst the chaos of the other exaggerated characters will allow the audience to instantly connect with him. In the interview Wegrzyn goes on to discuss how Blackeyed Theatre used their set that shares some similarity with our own ideas.
The Director of the performance, Ella Vale, comments regarding the play that ‘the hardest thing about it, and also the most interesting thing, is that we as an audience must make up our own minds about what The Trial actually means’ (Blackeyed Theatre 2008, p. 12). The play opens up many possibilities regarding its meaning but what is perhaps most interesting is the fact that it is a different experience for every individual. The intention of the piece could be to question the law; or question our own lives and the trials we have to face daily. I hope that our audience can make meaning from our performance and appreciate it for a show as well as a potentially thought provoking experience.
Overall Blackeyed Theatre’s production of The Trial is a really interesting piece to explore in detail. Many of their show elements parallel our own. I feel our production can be inspired by them.
Work Cited
Blackeyed Theatre (2008) The Trial Education Pack, http://www.tomneill.co.uk/blackeyed/The%20Trial%20Education%20Pack.pdf (acessed: 22/03/2013)
I was also really inspired by their work, although I felt that their choice to have Joseph K in such similar costume didn’t utilise his segregation that the script lends itself towards.
I think they create a distinction but it is not grand enough for the divide to be evident to an audience. Where as we used the colour of the shirts as well as the more business esque attire of K to further affirm his isolation.