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.