Unnur Ösp Stefánsdóttir as Greta and Björn Thors as
Gregor. Photo Credit © Simon Kane
Reviewed by James
Karas
Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis is a simple story
about a salesman who wakes up and discovers that he has turned into an insect.
Maybe a vermin or something. We are not sure. It combines the mundane and the
fantastical in such a way that it has fascinated readers for almost one hundred
years and spawned numerous adaptations as a film, stage play and opera. The
question is what is this novella all about?
David Farr and Gisli Örn Gardarsson, a British playwright and director,
and an Icelandic actor and director, have adapted Metamorphosis for the stage
obviously not to tell us what it is about but to make us marvel at it as we
scratch our heads and try to figure it out. The production is by the Vesturport
theatre company of Iceland and it was first produced at the Lyric Hammersmith
theatre in London in 2006.
On the simple level, the production is outstanding and memorable for its
physicality and athleticism. Björn Thors
as Gregor the insect hangs from the ceiling and performs athletic feats as if
he were preparing for the Olympics.
His bedroom furniture is at a right angle to the floor so that his bed
is facing the audience as if it were a picture hanging on the wall. This is an
extraordinary piece of stage design by Börkur Jónsson as it immediately takes
the story out the ordinary milieu of the two-story house in Eastern Europe. We
have the mundane and the fantastical combined graphically. Gregor’s acrobatics
and the commonplace activities of the dining room on the main floor are another
juxtaposition of the fantastical and the conventional.
The play develops as Gregor, his family and visitors try to come to
terms with his metamorphosis. Commonplace activities such as Gregor eating
something, on one hand, and the nefarious issue of the slow rejection of him by
all are intermingled. Gregor, the supporter of the family becomes an “outsider.”
Complimenting Thors on his acrobatic prowess is the least one can do for
so outstanding a performance. From the moment he discovers that he has been
turned into something almost unrecognizable to his final destruction, we see
his amazing transformation. Outsiders are common in drama and literature but
Gregor and Thors’s performance are unique.
The rest of the cast acts almost like a chorus to Gregor’s metamorphosis
as we watch them react, comment and try to come to terms with it. His sister
Greta (Unnur Ösp Stefánsdóttir), his father (Tom Mannion),
his mother (Edda Arnljótsdóttir) and Víkingur Kristajánsson as Herr Stiethl and
Herr Fischer are again both naturalistic and fantastical in keeping with the
approach by the adapters who are also the co-directors.
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have composed some eerie music for the play
that is very effective and manages to be played and heard without interfering
with the action on stage.
Like many people coming out of the theatre, you may end up using words
such as “weird,” “bizarre” and “different.” On further reflection, you will
come to the more sober verdict of “this is extraordinary theatre.” So much for
a simple story!
_________
Metamorphosis by Franz
Kafka, adapted by David Farr and Gisli Örn Gardarsson, continues until March 9,
2014 at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, 260 King St. W. Toronto, Ont. www.mirvish.com
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