Amid flashing displays of Orwellian propaganda and disorienting isolation is a poet imprisoned for heresy and an agent bound to duty. Kafka for Beginners is no typical history crash course like the title suggests, but a deeply cathartic poetic exploration of freedom subject to the controlled distortion of truth and conscience. This heartwarming dark comedy written by Julian Lowenfeld challenges the weight of individual honor in a fictional—yet in many ways, glaringly real—Ozymandias Empire.
The stage is divided into two boundaries, blatantly juxtaposing freedom and prison through the different ways space is occupied by the prisoner and his captor. The boundaries are satirically marked using red tape, a simple design that succinctly highlights the absurdity of the arrest and circumstances. But for me, the real merit dwells in the play’s effectual direction and the actors’ phenomenal performances.
The Poet, played by Jonas Kobberdal, is the perfect mixture of whimsical and rightfully resentful. Locked in solitary confinement, The Poet openly shows his disdain for the totalitarian regime and the state propagation of loyal stupidity represented in “2+2=5”. But through it all, he always speaks in compelling poetic cadence and rhythm.
As the captivating national anthem plays, The Poet drops to his knees and raises peace signs on both hands, giving us a patronizing demonstration of how two plus two makes four. Meanwhile, Kane Parker’s character, Agent 9, shows the true chains of his “freedom” through his restricted body language on the other side of the room, which dynamically amplifies the contrast between the two characters and the different guises of freedom.
Last but not least the play’s creator, Julian Lowenfeld, plays The Supervisor; the villain he later admits he “hates to play”, but a crucial character that foregrounds a very interesting cognitive dissonance. The Supervisor, like Agent 9, has the privilege to false freedom as he actively contributes to enforcing the emperor’s hollow beliefs. He takes on a more armchair role during the majority of the show, being positioned at the back of the theatre where the audience cannot see him but can hear his loud and commanding American voice. For fellow dystopian readers, this echoes the symbolic non-physical presence of Big Brother and Henry Ford.
Julian confirmed after the show that the use of accents is stylistically significant, such that The Agent’s southern American accent audibly emphasizes America’s uncanny resemblance to Russia. I would also argue that this show’s assessment of corruption and power play can be linked to other countries around the world, as well as on a global scale, where we are at risk of losing ourselves in the uprising of AI and other isolating effects of digitalization.
Ultimately, The Supervisor’s encounter with The Poet would expose his mental dissociation through a raw and unfiltered performance when he finally crosses the barrier and reveals himself to the audience. My only criticism is that I would have loved to see a more gradual progression in his character arc, as his single—no doubt meaningful—appearance in the show came off a little contrived. Nonetheless, it was refreshing to see a faceless antihero close the gap and appear a little more human.
After the show, Julian warmly regarded us and handed out free copies of My Talisman, a selected verse and biography of Alexander Pushkin he translated himself. Then I watched a Russian couple approach and thank him with real, teary eyes, which revealed to me up-close how immensely important this production was.
With the surge of digitalization and the rapid transmission of ideas, we don’t acknowledge enough how politically underrepresented a nation could be. We are more prone to seeing the biggest headlines and hearing the loudest opinions that, unfortunately, we miss out on the right population of people who might be our best key to reinvigorating hope. But I’m honestly relieved that Kafka for Beginners wraps this sentiment successfully through its insightful production, with respect to the final Pushkin quote: “There is no truth where there is no love”.
Kafka for Beginners is running until 24 August at Alba Theatre, Braw Venues at Hill Street.
Buy tickets here.
Image courtesy of Catharsis Theater Company, provided to The Student as press material.