Kafka and Son
“Dearest Father,” Kafka wrote in a letter to his father Hermann in 1919, “You asked me recently why I maintain that I am afraid of you… And if I now try to give you an answer in writing, it will still be very incomplete...”
The fifty-page letter never reached Hermann, who outlived his son by seven years. Now it is brought to life in an imaginative new adaptation for stage by Canadian companies Theaturtle and Threshold Theatre, as a monologue for Alon Nashman.
Stylistically sublime, ‘Kafka and Son’ is theatrically outstanding. We first meet Nashman as the timorous, insecure Franz, writing the above opening words. His desk: a bed of black feathers atop a small cage, his words: the same feathers as they rained through the mesh as he writes. Nashman then effortlessly morphs into father Hermann, whose guttural, sickly laugh makes the audience as uneasy as Franz. As the latter recounts how crushing an effect his father’s influence has had on him, the monochrome minimalistic set morphs as seamlessly as Nashman into a dining room, an iron bed into a cubicle, all the time the black feathers the central prop. The lighting, which eerily casts a monstrously towering shadow of Hermann as he leers at his inferior offspring, or illuminates a single white feather as Franz discusses his failed proposals, is used to sensational effect.
This is intense theatre. Accompanied by brilliantly emotive jewish folk music, Nashman compellingly, with a dark energy that never waivers, details the paternal episodes which have dogged his life ever since: his father’s body, work, Judaism, marriage.
“As usual,” Kafka wrote, “I was unable to think of any answer to your question, partly for the very reason that I am afraid of you, and partly because an explanation of the grounds for this fear would mean going into far more details than I could even approximately keep in mind while talking.” Nevertheless, Nashman’s attempt through monologue is worthy of the countless accolades he has hitherto been awarded in Canada. An inspired performance, and a remarkable piece of theatre.
Reviewed by Sacha Timaeus 22/08/2010
Kafka and Son
Bedlam Theatre
14:30; until 28th August
