Theatre Gigante takes on Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’

There is a wonderful scene in Mel Brooks’ 1967 comedy The Producers in which theatrical producer Max Bialystock picks up a manuscript in his search for the worst play ever written.

“‘Gregor Samsa awoke one morning to discover that he had been transformed into a giant cockroach,’” Bialystock reads, then drops the manuscript on a pile with the other rejects. “It’s too good.”

Theatre Gigante’s Isabelle Kralj would certainly agree on the brilliance of Franz Kafka’s fantastical novella The Metamorphosis, the first line of which reveals Samsa’s stunning transformation.

So much so that the Milwaukee-based theater troupe is tackling Kafka’s 1915 work as its first production of 2018, part of Theatre Gigante’s 30th season. Samsa’s story will be told through text, music and dance Jan. 25–28 at the UWM Kenilworth 508 Theatre.

“I wanted to do The Metamorphosis since I was in high school,” says Kralj, Theatre Gigante’s co-artistic director along with partner Mark Anderson. “What speaks to me about the work is the change Gregor Samsa goes through and why.”

“When you read the novella, you see that the transformation is so mundanely accepted, and when he dies it’s with so little fanfare,” adds Kralj, who adapted Kafka’s text and is directing and choreographing the show.

In the novella, Samsa is a traveling salesman whose earnings support his aging parents and sister, with whom he lives. His sudden transformation into an insect renders him unable to communicate, much less do his job or help his family. In the end, all is lost and Samsa dies.

Kralj always has been puzzled by Samsa’s change, which Kafka never explains.

“Kafka was working as an insurance salesman during this period and all he wanted to do was write,” Kralj says. “That got me to thinking about people who work two and three jobs and feel the extreme pressure society puts on them.

“There’s a wear and tear on the soul, and when someone changes, maybe becoming an invalid, it’s a change for all involved,” she explains.

‘Gigante style’

Kralj is telling Kafka’s story in what she describes as “the Gigante style” of fragmentation, stylization and naturalness. No one will be dressed up in a big bug costume, but two actors have been employed to tell Samsa’s story.

“I thought about Gregor who is narrating the story,” she explains. “He is like a stroke victim who knows what’s going on but can’t communicate or respond.”

Actor Edwin Olvera will play the physical character who undergoes the transformation into an insect. Another actor, Ben Yela, will share Samsa’s inner thoughts, essentially narrating the production.

Slovenian composer Borut Krzisnik, with whom Kralj has previously worked, will provide the music for the show.

The combination of text and movement, intrinsic to the company’s style, blends to tell the story, Kralj explains. Krzisnik’s music serves as the bridge between the two.

There have been other stage adaptations of The Metamorphosis, most notably in 1969 by English actor and director Steven Berkhoff. His treatment was revived on Broadway in 1989 in a production that featured dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov and actor René Auberjonois.

Kralj watched YouTube videos of the performances, but chose not to tap any aspect of the Berkhoff production, which she felt was forced, and thus ineffective. Her adaptation includes only those details necessary to tell the story, she says.

“We follow (director) Peter Brook’s rule that all the arrows have to point in the same direction,” she explains. “What was extraneous to our style was not included.”

ON STAGE

Theatre Gigante’s production of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis runs Jan. 25–28 at the UWM Kenilworth 508 Theatre, 1925 E. Kenilworth Place, Milwaukee. Tickets are $15–$25 and are available by dialing 800-838-3006 or by visiting gigantemetamorphosis.brownpapertickets.com.