Kafka’s Metamorphosis – The Musical! With Puppets! is just as deliciously surreal as it sounds.
Taking the basic story of Kafka’s 1915 novella, the company of four actors not only brings to life the story of the transformation of Gregor Samsa, but also provides Cliff Notes on the life of Kafka himself, and the scholarly reaction to his work.
The show is funny, and the fourth wall is frequently broken. The audience is addressed directly by the human characters and the puppets who pop up to portray other roles within the story’s world.
It’s a heady, bizarre mix, but then the story itself is more than a little odd.
Blake du Bois as Kafka/Gregor is a very strong leading man, seamlessly differentiating between his different roles and undertaking some incredibly energetic moments of movement. Gregor is one of the puppets, so it’s easy to tell who he’s being at any one time – but it’s still masterfully done. He also has a really creepy sinister edge to his performance when the story requires it.
Morgan Smith as Grete Samsa – who is also a puppet – makes all the world-weary teenage cynicism possible as Grete discovers the inherent unfairness of being a girl in a patriarchal world in the early years of the twentieth century.
Likewise, Kaia Fitzgerald as Mother Samsa (and Kafka’s own mother) really sells the exasperation of a woman who has learnt to suppress all of her own desires, needs, wants, hopes and dreams in favour of acting as a subordinate to her ineffectual husband, who, it is implied, she could outdo in every way that is deemed as mattering, if only the world had not assigned her to the role of chief cook and housemaid, in the guise of a wife.
Completing the company, Luis Rivera compels as a useless father and husband, both in Kafka’s life and in the thinly disguised persona within the world of The Metamorphosis.
The story is well told, and you don’t have to be familiar with the source material, or the life of Kafka himself, to be able to follow the narrative. All credit here to Matt Chiorini, who has taken what is often confusing and made it not only understandable but highly entertaining.
Overall, this is an incredible hour of musical theatre, with a surprising amount of warmth and heart for what is an overall bleak story. As they say within the script: “Kafka – (it’s) not for everybody”. But if Kafka appeals, then this musical is well worth an hour of your time.
Kafka’s Metamorphosis: The Musical! With Puppets! continues at the Pleasance Dome: Ace Dome (venue 23), at 1.30pm (13:30), until August 26th.
