Metamorphosis
Theatre Vesturport (Iceland) and Lyric Hammersmith (UK)
Ten Days on The Island
Theatre Royal, Hobart, Tasmania
8pm, 1st April, 2009
Admittedly I have not read any Kafka so I went in blind to this production, which by the looks of it was a headlining show at the 2009 Ten Days on the Island Festival. In choosing works only from islands and with a rather small budget Ten Days often will bring out solo acts especially the performance ones where the budgets are greater than the visual arts or even the musical acts.
These shows – S20, Baby, Hatch, Martha, Florence, Daniel Yeung, Raka Maitra, King Lear were one person shows.
These had three people or less – Floating, This is Living, Teuila Postcards.
Only a handful had ensembles and this must be due to cost, freight must surely be a killer for an island like Tasmania.
The work was accomplished and slick, the physicality was detailed and focused. It is so fantastic to see a production where as much time and effort is put into the physical aspects of the performance as is the text. There was not a finger out of place and when chaos did happen it was so alien to the world they had created that it felt like a massive rupture had been felt.
The set was a two storey cut away. We can see the upstairs room where Gregor (the man who has become an insect) has his room as well as the living area downstairs for the rest of the family.
The ideas in the story of alienation and compassion (or lack of) didn’t come through strongly enough – and I don’t know if this is a failing of the production or of the script/story. Although I did feel compassion for Gregor’s plight, I also found myself searching for the metaphor in his transformation – I was wondering if it was a comment on class or capitalism or if it was something more humanist than this. Due to me not being clear about this I ended up watching the narrative play out as if it were a simple fact that a man had turned into a bug and then was shunned by his family. Perhaps it is as simple as that. We as humans are so unable to cope with change and difference that we would rather carry on as things were and turn our backs on our own loved ones than try and make a shift in ourselves. Oooo that sounds so deep it might just actually be right….
The whole cast spoke in English with very clear diction which added to the sense of rigidity in the world of the characters – it is rare that having a play in a language that is not native to the performers actually works.
I didn’t love this show but I was pleased to see it in the Theatre Royal and pleased to see a sold out venue (they added another show as well). As I walked out I heard people speaking and saying “wow that guy was amazing climbing around the walls”, they were not theatre goers and this is a good sign for the festival and also for the people of Hobart that these shows can engage a wider audience.
Marty, you have to read Kafka. It’s on the required syllabus. I was skeptical until I actually gave it a go, and you can get through his entire back catalogue in about a week or two. I’ll lend you a beautifully bound copy of The Trial I have. I love it.
That said, I never understood why Metamorphosis is such a celebrated work. Maybe cos it’s so short – and almost everyone who refers to it says that Gregor has turned into a cockroach, which isn’t true. He’s an insect, like you say.
Maybe he is an ant. CUE BIAS.
Bom, you haven’t done your research properly, common misconception labels him as an insect, the specific translation refers to Gregor merely as “an unclean and monstrous being” So you’re kinda right CUE BIAS. but still…