Franz Kafka – Apparatus

White Bear Theatre

Reviewed – 10th January 2019

★★★

“By wisely trusting in the source material, he has achieved a result which is both timely and, at times, compelling”

Though a century old, the fiction of Franz Kafka – its cruelty, its paranoia, and its pitch-black humour- reverberates through time. The concept of a ‘penal colony’ may seem outdated, a nightmare from a forgotten age, but Kafka’s short story of the same name remains a terrifyingly urgent vision of cold, bureaucratic madness, and ultimately its collapse. As such it seems fitting that today it should be brought to the stage, as it has in Ross Dinwiddy’s new adaptation.

In the original text – to which Dinwiddy’s plot remains relatively true – a traveller from an unnamed country arrives on an unnamed island, a penal colony. He is escorted to the place of an execution he has come to observe, and discovers there the brutal and arcane process by which it will be carried out. In twelve-hour cycles, a machine – the “apparatus” – carves the sentences of condemned persons into their skin, keeping them alive at least long enough to have an “epiphany” concerning their crimes. The only executor – and increasingly the only supporter – of the practice is an officer who, with almost religious zeal, explains to the traveller the baroque form of torture which he is about to witness. The only other characters are the condemned man and the soldier guarding him.

The small number of characters as well as the small space are both fitting for the dank, paranoid atmosphere of the play. The claustrophobic room housing the apparatus once doubled as an inner sanctum for its adherents; we the audience act as the ghosts of the many observers that once came but do so no longer. Matt Hastings’ traveller is perhaps more obviously appalled than Kafka’s original character, yet as a result he acts as the vessel for our horror. But the keystone of the piece is undoubtedly Emily Carding’s officer, whose wild mood swings between order and mania mirror the essential madness of bureaucracy underpinning everything.

Where the play becomes somewhat slack, however, is in its awkward transition from page to stage. Much of the officer’s dialogue is lifted directly from Kafka, but what works well in prose often becomes too knotty for drama. There are times when the officer’s explanations lose interest in spite of Carding’s charisma. Restoring the balance slightly is the parallel relationship between the soldier and the condemned man (Maximus Polling and Luis Amália respectively). What starts as detached, slowly develops (despite the condemned man’s circumstances) into playful and finally sexual, all carried out in silence as the oblivious officer explains the apparatus. It is in this sequence in particular that the piece best expresses Kafka’s dark sense of humour. And yet even this loses interest after some time, leaving sections in the middle of the play flat, in want of something happening.

Nonetheless, Dinwiddy manages to retain the cruelty and absurdity of the story. By wisely trusting in the source material, he has achieved a result which is both timely and, at times, compelling.

Reviewed by Harry True

Franz Kafka – Apparatus

White Bear Theatre until 26th January

Previously reviewed at this venue:

This Story of Yours | ★★★ | January 2018

The Lady With a Dog | ★★★★ | February 2018

Northanger Avenue | ★★★★ | March 2018

Grimm’s Fairy Tales | ★★ | April 2018

The Old Room | ★★ | April 2018

The Unnatural Tragedy | ★★★★★ | July 2018

Schrodinger’s Dog | ★★★★ | November 2018

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★★★

“The dialogue is nimble, often hilarious, and the characters are full of sympathy even at their most bitter”

In cold weather hedgehogs huddle together for warmth, but find that in doing so, they invariably pierce each other with their spines. This is the premise of Arthur Schopenhauer’s “Hedgehog’s Dilemma”, his bleak, allegorical musing on the nature of human intimacy, and, if you can believe such a thing, it is the subject of a new light-hearted take on modern romance by Blueleaf Theatre.

James P. Mannion’s sprightly piece revolves around a couple in a five-year relationship, drawn together by a shared intelligence and sharp senses of humour, driven apart by their many differences, the barbs with which they end up harming one another. Over a venomous 24-hour period, the failure of each to live up to the standards of the other rips the two apart.

Mannion skilfully captures the sense of opposition, the mysterious way in which two people might at the same time attract and repel. The dialogue is nimble, often hilarious, and the characters are full of sympathy even at their most bitter. He wastes no time in cutting to the action; after a brief prologue in which we witness the relationship blossoming for the first time, we quickly fast forward to its breakdown. Unfortunately, this sharp change in mood threatens to unsaddle the piece; from this point forth the register is one of constant conflict, making the opening feel arbitrary and at times leaving the play rather paceless. Moreover, fragments of Schopenhauer’s dilemma are pushed explicitly – and often rather awkwardly – into the narrative as she is a doctoral student for whom the philosopher is the subject of a thesis. The allegory is explicitly linked by the characters to the situation they find themselves in, and when this does happen, Mannion’s otherwise organic writing begins to feel didactic.

The charming performances of the leads quickly clear up such worries, however. Rebecca Bailey and David Shields find a great deal of humour in their characters, but crucially they know when to shift gear, exposing the pain beneath. Their warmth endears them to us, even as they drive each other away. Set entirely in the front room of their flat, the intimate, book-strewn space mirrors the mix of comfort and claustrophobia that exists between the pair.

Philosophy and drama have had a long a varied rapport themselves, as have philosophy and comedy. Hedgehogs & Porcupines plays with both relationships, and though at times it might lack bite, its enduring good nature finds much insight and enjoyment.

Reviewed by Harry True

White Bear Theatre

Reviewed – 10th January 2019

★★★

“By wisely trusting in the source material, he has achieved a result which is both timely and, at times, compelling”

Nonetheless, Dinwiddy manages to retain the cruelty and absurdity of the story. By wisely trusting in the source material, he has achieved a result which is both timely and, at times, compelling.

Reviewed by Harry True

Franz Kafka – Apparatus

White Bear Theatre until 26th January

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Hedgehogs & Porcupines

Old Red Lion Theatre

Reviewed – 2nd October 2018

★★★

“The dialogue is nimble, often hilarious, and the characters are full of sympathy even at their most bitter”

Philosophy and drama have had a long a varied rapport themselves, as have philosophy and comedy. Hedgehogs & Porcupines plays with both relationships, and though at times it might lack bite, its enduring good nature finds much insight and enjoyment.

Reviewed by Harry True

Hedgehogs & Porcupines

Old Red Lion Theatre until 6th October

Previously reviewed at the venue: