by Franz Kafka adapted by Nick Gill
seen at the Young Vic on 12 August 2015
The play is not, of course, by Franz Kafka - it is a rather free adaptation from the famous novel. It is directed by Richard Jones and features Rory Kinnear as Joseph K, with eleven other actors taking all the subsidiary roles, in particular Kate O'Flynn playing some six significant females in Joseph's life, as imagined by Nick Gill.
The first four rows of the audience on either side of a long transverse stage are reached through corridors of flimsy plywood, and each row has an equally makeshift shelf in front of it, rendering everyone sitting there as putative jurors in the eponymous trial. The acting space itself, designed by Miriam Buether, has two parallel belts which are frequently in motion to allow various props and settings to appear and disappear as required. Scenes are often framed by doors at either end, which are free-standing and are often slammed loudly. The effect is nightmarish, especially as it gives rise to the thought that all significant spaces for Joseph K are essentially alike in their configuration. The phrase 'everything belongs to the Court' begins to have a physical as well as a metaphorical resonance.
