Tag Archives: Berkoff

‘No Door, No Entrance’: Kafka’s Comic Nightmare

The above diagram displays Kurt Vonnegut’s G-I Axis (good fortune versus ill fortune in stories), used to depict the narrative situation of Kafka’s characters. They do not experience the ascribed twists and turns of most narratives – they simply live, and then they die. This disaffection is born from paradox, as Malcolm Bradbury writes, leaving ‘the world unreal, detached from itself, suddenly made unhomely’ (1988, p. 268). In this intractable hollowness, a ‘temperament that sees a world where benign divinity has been replaced by random arbitrariness and absent authorities’ (p. 277), Kafka’s writings held a gripping relevance to the post-war world, which ‘came to resemble the imaginary one he constructed’ (p. 256). It is therefore no surprise that the Kafka-esque is connected to much post-war art, including theatre.

Much of the identity of the postmodern individual can be perceived in The Trial – such as ‘the abbreviation of Joseph K.’s name… which at once reduces his identity and seems to turn him into a case or a file’ (p. 258). This alienation pervades Kafka’s work through oppressive relationships. Isolation is especially created through sexual licentiousness, part of the ‘strong erotic charge [that] runs through all of Kafka’s writings, along with a troubling sexual guilt’ (p. 269). Berkoff therefore initially seems to be a fitting theatrical projector for Kafka, with his plays of sexually-minded young men caught in social systems. But his use of sexuality, far from being ambivalent, is what he words as ‘a loving appreciation of the male and female form’ (2000, p. 3). In his interpretation of The Trial, Berkoff translates the satirical elements of the novel onto an emphasised plane of physical theatre, but luckily the deeper existential anxieties and permeating frustration at human administration remains part of the play’s stronger points.

Nevertheless, Berkoff’s reading exhorts Bradbury’s suggestion that despite K.’s ‘hopes that a woman will intercede for him… his careless sexual activities seem part of his crime and instinct for self-destruction (1988, p. 269). Therefore:

K. himself is thus the source and cause of all the events, as if he is living in a dream which is from time to time separate from reality. Nonetheless the dream-reality grows more and more inclusive, and the gap between the familiar and the strange closes. (1988, p. 269)

Although this use of dream-like storytelling can be associated with the Modernist tropes of stream-of-consciousness and the Freudian influence on literature, I would argue that Kafka’s dream/nightmare is closer to the postmodern sense – equally permeated by the carnal and the mechanical, the real and the representative. Indeed, Kafka’s ‘mistrust of literature as an institution’ is a marker of his contemporary separateness and developer of ‘original patterns’, and informed the ‘idea of language as pure exorcism [that] fascinated him’, as Franz Kuna writes (1986, p. 131). This aspect of Kafka – literature as corrupting and language as purging – shares similarities with Dada’s communication breakdown; and is included in our staging of the court scene towards the end of The Trial, with the Judge proclaiming K.’s guilt with ‘blah, blah, blahs’. Kafka’s theories on language and literature can be best scene in his On Parables:

If you only followed the parables you yourselves would become parables and with that rid all of your daily cares. Another said: I bet that is also a parable. The first said: You have won. The second said: But unfortunately only in parable. The first said: No, in reality: in parable you have lost. (Kafka 2005, p. 457)

It is yet another paradoxical tangle. However, if Kafka truly believed that language was an exorcist, then perhaps theatre is the best medium to convey his works (he himself wrote a short play, The Warden of the Tomb). The primal scream against institutionalism, an Artaudian act made by K. towards the play’s conclusion, is perhaps what Kafka longed for – a pure and simple gesture untangled in paradox. This, too, is what we look for from a play.

Word count: 654.

Works cited

Berkoff, Steven (2011), The Trial, in The Trial, Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony: Three Theatre Adaptations from Franz Kafka, London: Amber Lane Press, pp. 5-69.

Berkoff, Steven (2000), East, in Steven Berkoff: Plays 1, London: Faber and Faber, pp. 1-42 (‘Author’s Note’, pp. 3-2).

Bradbury, Malcolm (1988), The Modern World: Ten Great Writers, London: Secker & Warburg.

Kafka, Franz (2005), The Warden of the Tomb, trans. by Tania Stern and James Stern, in Nahum N. Glatzer (ed.), The Complete Short Stories of Franz Kafka, London: Vintage, pp. 206-19.

Kafka, Franz (2005), On Parables, trans. by Willa Muir and Edwin Muir, in Nahum N. Glatzer (ed.), The Complete Short Stories of Franz Kafka, London: Vintage, p. 457.

Kafka, Franz (1999), The Trial, trans. by Willa Muir and Edwin Muir, London: Vintage.

Kuna, Franz (1986), ‘Vienna and Prague 1890-1928’ in, Malcolm Bradbury and James McFarlane (eds.), Modernism: 1890-1930, London: Penguin, pp. 120-133.

Vonnegut, Kurt (2005), ‘Kurt Vonnegut at the Blackboard’, [online] <http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/voices-in-time/kurt-vonnegut-at-the-blackboard.php?page=all> [accessed 21 March 2013].

My reaction to the manifesto and The Trial

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‘I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage.A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre’ (Brook 1968, p. 11).

If we take this idea that the relationship between spectator and the actor is the necessary catalyst for theatre to occur, then we must also consider what it takes to fuel the performance from the actor to a relatable state for the spectator. For STAMP we want the characters and the story to drive our performances, which ultimately derives from the work of the actor. We believe that we do not need grand aesthetic features because in our eyes the actor and the work he/she is doing is the only spectacle that is necessary.

Theatre has, as Brook suggests, become deadly (Brook 1968); what STAMP aim to do is break the boundaries of theatre and use all that is old to create something new. We are going to be drawing from all aspects of theatre and making it better and breath new life in to it. For us no practitioner is wrong, no style is incorrect. We want to stamp our own mark on the theatrical scene, taking what is already present and overused and making it into something that feel fresh.

The Trial seems to be an excellent starting point for the company to begin expressing these ideologies through, as it is a diverse and absurd play which can incorporate the playing of Brook, the bio-mechanical elements of Meyerhold and even the naturalism of Stanislavski. Berkoff’s play offers STAMP the option of freedom and will allow us to further explore theatrical convenitons and ourselves as a singular and as a collective company.

Brook, P. (1968) The Empty Space, London: Penguin.

Joseph K – The naturalistic man in the surreal world

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So, I am to play the role of Joseph K in STAMP Theatre’s upcoming production of Steven Berkoff’s The Trial. Having just read through the script I am concerned as to how I will portray such a naturalistic character in what is such a surreal world. It will be a difficult process and I worry that he may become lost in the fray of flamboyance that will be occurring on stage. But then maybe that is Berkoff’s intention; that K becomes lost within the law itself as he aims to find out what he is accused of. On the surface it is difficult to find any form of beginning for K. He seems like a man who is stuck in an empty life which consists of sleep, work and the occasional fling with Elsa. Joseph K seems to me to be an everyman who has no ego, and in the end does not succeed in his quest, ‘Man cannot live without a lasting trust of something indestructible within himself’ (Berkoff 988, p. 11). Joseph K does not have this belief and in my first reading, I perceived this to be the reason why the play unfolds in such a manner.

Berkoff states in the preface to the play that ‘The Trial is my life. It is anyone’s trial. It is the trial of actually creating the production‘ (1998, p. 5). Perhaps I will be able to understand the character of Joseph K as this process develops and I begin my own trial of morphing Joseph K into a real character.

Work Cited.

Berkoff, S. (1988) The Trial, Metamorphosis, In The Penal Colony, London: Guernsey Press Co. Ltd.

‘Before the Door’: Dramaturgical Foreword

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As the idea to perform Steven Berkoff’s adaptation of Franz Kafka’s The Trial preluded the writing of our manifesto, the choice of play and the company ethos are somewhat intertwined – namely storytelling, adaptation and performativity. Although it is the theatricality of Berkoff – similarly sharing a strong influence from Brook – that attracted us to the play, the shadow of Kafka ties into both Berkoff’s theatre and our manifesto beyond merely being the originator of The Trial. As both dramaturge and producer, it is important for me that the literature, theories, and styles of our influences pervade our work and inform our performative choices, just as our dramatic tastes chose our sources. Practically, rather than keep a workbook, my role as dramaturge will be to research The Trial and utilise my findings in aiding the director and performers in their choices, and post dramaturgical writings onto the blog (for which I have distributed a loose schedule and idea sheet for my colleagues [Blog entry guideline]).

Our manifesto’s intent to conjoin binary oppositions is shared in the work of our stimuli. Just as Berkoff merges the high language of Shakespeare with the earthier narratives of lower class urban life, specifically seen in East and West, Kafka shares this ‘gift to turn the surreal into the matter-of-fact’, possessing ‘the power of seeming both real and strange at once’, as Malcolm Bradbury writes on the Modernist figure (1988, p. 258). In The Metamorphosis, the absurd situation of Gregor Samsa’s inexplicable overnight transformation into a man-sized insect is reacted to with as much bafflement with his condition, as anxiety in getting to work on time. This dedication is matched by Joseph K.’s affinity to the bank, despite the increasing threat of his unknown case. In a reversion of Chekhov’s invocation that ‘we must work’, The Trial displays that this alone is no longer satisfactory. Joseph K. is the doomed figure who cannot survive because he searches for answers that cannot be answered from condemners who are not present. For the performing artist, who must not merely work but struggle for the vitality and relevance of their occupation, K. is the avatar of Brook’s ‘Deadly Theatre’, possessing ‘the viewpoint that somewhere, someone has found out and defined how the play should be done’ (Brook 2008, p. 17).

Before the Law, published separately by Kafka, serves as a meta-narrative, ‘a parable of life’s quest to discover meaning and significance, though it also implies the ambiguity of all significance’ (Bradbury 1988, p. 274). Kafka’s implication in ‘this gate was made only for you’ (2005, p. 4) seems to be that everyone has their perspective interpretation. Rather than see stories, like K., as deceptive (which undoubtedly gives theatre its appeal), we see it as a source for interpretation (which brings theatre its force). This makes The Trial not only a prime text for our company’s ethos and performance, but one that lends itself to constant adaptation.

Word count: 483.

Works cited

Berkoff, Steven (2011), The Trial, in The Trial, Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony: Three Theatre Adaptations from Franz Kafka, London: Amber Lane Press, pp. 5-69.

Berkoff, Steven (2000), East, in Steven Berkoff: Plays 1, London: Faber and Faber, pp. 1-42.

Berkoff, Steven (2000), West, in Steven Berkoff: Plays 1, London: Faber and Faber, pp. 43-94.

Bradbury, Malcolm (1988), The Modern World: Ten Great Writers, London: Secker & Warburg.

Brook, Peter (2008), The Empty Space, London: Penguin.

Kafka, Franz (2005), Before the Law, trans. by Willa Muir and Edwin Muir, in Nahum N. Glatzer (ed.), The Complete Short Stories of Franz Kafka, London: Vintage, pp. 3-4.

Kafka, Franz (2005), The Metamorphosis, trans. by Willa Muir and Edwin Muir, in Nahum N. Glatzer (ed.), The Complete Short Stories of Franz Kafka, London: Vintage, pp. 89-139.

Kafka, Franz (1999), The Trial, trans. by Willa Muir and Edwin Muir, London: Vintage.

Images from Franz Kafka (2009), The Trial, ed. Ritchie Robinson, trans. Mike Mitchell, Oxford: Oxford University Press; Peter Brook (2008), The Empty Space, London: Penguin; Steven Berkoff (2000), Steven Berkoff: Plays 1, London: Faber and Faber.