Venue: Dunedin Theatre at Braw Venues @ Hill Street
Date and Time: Saturday 15 August, 3.30pm
Ticket Price: £17.50
Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)
Reviewed by: Heather Gordon
The room is washed in red light, with a screen advertising the Imperial Ministry of Redemption. At centre stage lies a despondent-looking man shackled to a box. He is revealed to be a poet referred to as Franz Kafka, imprisoned for heresy against the Ministry, who uses his linguistic skills to bring his world to life for the audience: a world in which tyranny reigns and propaganda echoes around the clock, but where the prisoner has fashioned armour around his mind, protecting him from accepting the lies that would give him an easier, ‘freer’ life.
Kafka seeks solace within the confines of his prison cell, often finding comfort in the music of famous composers like Beethoven and the natural world. In a nod to The Metamorphosis, he refers to insects like beetles and even a spider he names Walt Whitman, after the celebrated author. The Metamorphosis is also reflected through references to ‘parasites’, a concept closely tied to themes of transformation, alienation and loss of humanity.
Through simple questioning, Kafka manages to shed light on the hypocrisy of the guards imprisoning him, as their justification for imprisoning inmates is that they are simply following orders, while clearly not fully buying into the rhetoric from the Ministry themselves. This strongly demonstrates the power of fear as a motivator to act against your own gut instincts.
At one point, the guards try to persuade Kafka to work for the Union by offering him various incentives after a decree arrives from above declaring that he should be made Poet Laureate. However, he refuses to capitulate, emboldened in part by one of the play’s most touching moments: a letter from his wife, who clearly supports and cherishes Kafka.
The play concludes with one of the guards, who has developed affection for the prisoner, deciding to leave the profession. Meanwhile, Kafka prepares for death as he refuses to work for the Ministry, before the story offers a final nod to the Russian poet and playwright Alexander Pushkin, whose work also explored themes of resistance to oppression and after whom the non-profit Pushkin Legacy, executive producers of the play, is named.
Overall, the play is utterly captivating for Kafka lovers and non-lovers alike. The lead actor expertly conveys the turmoil of captivity and highlights the importance of maintaining your inner mental world to dull the relentless propaganda and cruelty of the external world. The script does well to humanise characters, such as the guards, whom we may have otherwise dismissed as merely complicit.
Unfortunately, the play’s themes will always remain relevant, serving as a warning about the dangers of censorship, ‘wrongthink’ and the treatment of prisoners of conscience. Fundamentally, it is a powerful defence of truth above all else and strongly affirms the need to resist tyranny in all its forms.
