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- Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
- Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
Gregor Samsa wakes up each morning, quietly leaves the house to take the same train, and works to pay off the family debt. But that world explodes one morning, when Gregor awakes to find himself changed. To those around him he is dangerous, untouchable vermin. Worse than that, he is a burden. Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka's shocking tale of cruelty and kindness, has been a literary landmark since it was first published in 1915. Lemn Sissay's thrilling stage adaptation is a visceral and vital depiction of humans struggling within a system that crushes them under its heel. It was commissioned and first produced in 2023 by Frantic Assembly, in a co-production with Theatre Royal Plymouth, Curve, MAST Mayflower Studios, and Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, and was directed by Scott Graham.
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Kafka’s
METAMORPHOSIS
adapted by
Lemn Sissay
NICK HERN BOOKS
London
www.nickhernbooks.co.uk
Contents
Director’s Note
Writer’s Note
Original Production Details
Metamorphosis
About the Authors
Copyright and Performing Rights Information
Director’s Note
Scott Graham
The great thing about going into a rehearsal room is understanding that you do so to find out what you don’t yet know rather than to confirm what you do know. I feel the same about approaching potential collaborators. I began this project with Lemn, not with a sense of relief that the writer would take care of everything and then I will just have to get it up on stage but with a real sense of ‘What can we make together?’
We quickly shared a newly found passion for Kafka’s novella and a burning sense that it was speaking to us now. Families trapped in debt, being ground down by that debt, a crisis in masculinity and the cruelty of the world when bread winner becomes burden.
We were also acutely aware of the baggage that the title brings. Maybe it is the vaguely remembered story of the man who turns into a beetle. Maybe it is that play by Steven
Berkoff. Maybe that wonderful show by the Icelandic company Vesturport. Either way, we had a choice. Do we wither in front of these iconic behemoths, or do we allow them to help us find something new, something that is ours? Thankfully, Lemn was up for the journey and together we have played, laughed, shuddered and struggled to the point where I think we have found something that really is ours – a respectful response to Kafka’s brilliantly disturbing, heartbreaking novella.
Writer’s Note
Lemn Sissay
I received the email in February 2022. At the time it seemed we were all in some kind of metamorphosis emerging from the pandemic. Scott Graham has a magnificent memory because, although we had only met once, he recalled the Frantic Assembly productions I had seen. The ones he recalled were I Think We Are Alone, which he co-directed with Kathy Burke, Fatherland (at the Lyric Hammersmith) and Beautiful Burnout (boxing at York Hall). What he didn’t know is that I also saw Tiny Dynamite at Contact Theatre in Manchester. I have seen productions by Frantic Assembly for about twenty-five years.
I said ‘yes’ to Scott’s request that I adapt Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. It was not an easy ‘yes’. Metamorphosis is a literary ‘masterpiece’ and there are other adaptations in theatre that loom large. At the start, Scott and I talked about the themes of the tale. We discussed Gregor and each character
in the novella. It is now August 2023, and the conversation has not stopped, not even now when there are three weeks until the production starts.
Inside the rehearsal room, the composer is still fine-tuning the musical compositions, the lighting designer is illuminated with new ideas, the costumes have just come in and earlier this afternoon I scripted new lines. Words are finding their meaning inside movement. Next time you speak to someone, think of the exact position of your body, not just your hands. Freeze right there and run the words again in your head. This is the nature of Frantic Assembly and Metamorphosis. It is the bond of light, sound, words, movement, dress and environment. Like an animated conversation with a close friend, it is a challenge to see where movement begins, and words end.
This adaptation of Metamorphosis was first performed on 11 September 2023 at Theatre Royal Plymouth, in a Frantic Assembly Production, co-produced with Theatre Royal Plymouth, Curve, MAST Mayflower Studios and Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. The cast was as follows:
MR SAMSA
Troy Glasgow
CHIEF CLERK / LODGER
Joe Layton
MRS SAMSA
Louise Mai Newberry
GREGOR
Felipe Pacheco
GRETE
Hannah Sinclair Robinson
Director
Scott Graham
Designer
Jon Bausor
Lighting Designer
Simisola Majekodunmi
Video Designer
Ian William Galloway
Composer
Stefan Janik
Sound Designer
Helen Skiera
Costume Designer
Becky Gunstone
Casting Director
Will Burton CDG
Associate Director
David Gilbert
Associate Lighting Designer
Tom Lightbody
ACT ONE
Pre-Metamorphosis
The show opens with someone lying in a bed. A beautiful light has invaded the space. The figure sits up. It is GRETE.
She walks around the room. She drapes herself in fabric and looks in the mirror. She talks to the portrait of the woman in a frame on the wall.
GRETE. The door was open. Cross my heart and hope to die. Honest promise.
This way? Miss Mysterious. Or this way? Or is it Mrs?
How about like this?
We can be friends. Me and you. In the dark. My best pose would be… yes? Or not. You tell me what you see? Everything. Okay. Deal. What do you see now?
She’s bored. She leaves.
Blackout.
Lamp comes on in the room. GREGOR stirs from the same bed. He gets up, as he does every morning.
GREGOR. My name’s Mr Samsa and I love fabric. I see you love fabric too.
He takes what he needs for work. He touches the portrait and leaves. A beautiful light invades the space. GRETE makes her way to his room where, like a cat, she climbs onto his bed and enjoys the warmth of it. She sits up. She gets up. She drapes herself in fabric and looks in the mirror.
