Kafka's The Trial; the Berkoff theatrical adaptation

Physical theatre at its most convincing.

This version of Kafka’s The Trial, designed and directed by Steven Berkoff, was based on the 1991 National Theatre production and filmed for Digital Theatre in Tokyo. It starred Alan Perrin as the ever reasonable Joseph K, arrested but never explicitly accused. Matthew Scurfield’s seemingly elastic limbs gave a remarkable physical performance as the flatulent lawyer Huld, standing up when it appeared that he could only fall down and writhing like a slow motion break dancer; the way he was returned to his chair was a moment of comic genius. Equally astonishing was Paul Bentall’s performance as the Priest, a Vitruvian man framed by a tightrope. The great Berkoff himself was a wonderfully funny Titorelli.

Each member of the cast, except for Joseph K, held a rectangular frame that could act as door, full length mirror or portrait, or, sideways, a tunnel. Joseph K often walked through these frames which were sometimes tilted askew, sometimes moving, just like the hero of the novel has to travel through the labyrinthine logic of the plot. The chorus acted as an ensemble when K was working in the bank, typing with their fingers and periodically, in synchrony, returning the typewriter carriage, all the while making the appropriate noises. Similarly, when K travelled on the tram, the chorus swayed with him. These formal and mannered aspects of the design of this performance were so ingenious that they managed to contribute an air of verisimilitude while at the same time holding the audience at arm’s length, reminding them that this whole story is absurd, but absurd in the sinister sense that the everyday alien reality of a little person caught in the machinations of the state can be nightmarish, absurd both in the sense of farcical but also frighteningly irrational, absurd in the theatrical sense, absurd as in Kafkaesque.

It is remarkable that such a deliberately artificial performance, designed to keep me at arm’s length, could nevertheless absorb me for nearly two and a half hours. It was remarkable that the audience were sufficiently engrossed to be able to laugh aloud at some of the ridiculousness.

It made me realise what an amazing book The Trial is; it made me want to read it again.

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God