The Trial by Franz Kafka
Cast
- Monette Bebow-Reinhard – Mrs. Grubach/Secretary
- Darby Fitzsimons – Wilhemina/Assassin 1/Court Admin.
- Stacey Garbarski – Katya/Narrator/Solemn Girl/Priest
- Shreenita Ghosh – Underling 2/Answer Ma’am
- Greg Hudson – Joseph K.
- Jo Krukowski – Miss Burstner/Narrator/Giddy Girl/ Flogger
- Jake Prine – Franz/Assassin 2/Usher
- Janine Puleo – Leni/Narrator/Limping Girl
- Bryan Royston – Examining Judge/Huld/Vice President
- Emily Swanson – Underling 1/Vigilant Defendant
- Christopher William Wolter – Inspector/Karl/Titorelli, Assoc. Dir.
The Left Field Trio
- Cooper Schlegel – bass
- Jake Bicknase – drums
- Alex Charland – woodwinds
Script – Alex Hancock
Production Manager – David Simmons
Stage Manager – Michael Feakins
Costume Designer – Izzie Karp
Lighting Designer – Ben Krueger
Graphic Designer – Wendy Vardaman
Special thanks to Marie Schulte, Madison Theatre Guild, Nick Barovic Hancock, Jake Penner, Kaye & Sam Cooke, Mary Beth Elliot and Scott Herrick, and Orange Schroeder and UW Professors Hans Adler, Sabine Gross, Greg Wiercioch , Kate Judson and Ralph Grunewald.
Franz Kafka The Trial
Incomprehensibility, Power, Obedience
Judgments about Kafka tend to emphasize the incomprehensible, absurd, ‘strange,’ etc. in his works. “Kafkaesque” is the magic word in this context. Is Kafka, alongside James Joyce and Marcel Proust one of the founders of modern literature, despite or perhaps precisely because of his incomprehensibility? If that were an explanation of Kafka’s spell, then there would be innumerable world-famous authors. Kafka’s works are not in themselves incomprehensible, but incomprehensibility is the underlying theme of his work. Again and again, he leads us to the limits of both understanding and imagination by undermining any allegedly apparent evidence up to the point where any and all evidence dissolves into mere appearance. Reality, thus, is nothing but our perception of it, and appearance is all we have. Here is how Kafka presents this in one of his early texts: “For we are like tree-trunks in the snow. Seemingly they are laid on flat, and with a little nudge you could push them away. No, that can’t be done, for they are connected firmly to the ground. But look, even that is only seeming.” (1912; transl. Joyce Crick). A vertiginous spiral of uncertainty, destroying any illusion of firm cognitive ground. Kafka stops just before providing a diagnosis. He does not provide a therapy because he himself is part of the experience of vertigo, which is one of the characteristic features of modernity.
Josef K. is (as we readers/spectators are) pushed into an incomprehensible situation: arrested without any given reason; by dubious agents; in the twilight of early morning. Neither the court nor the Law (in the singular and with a capital L) correspond to K.’s or our understanding of justice and legal procedures. BUT: The system functions! It is unclear how. It is unclear why. It is unclear with which purpose. And what is more: It is unclear what the Law could be or even whether there is the Law at all. All we have are procedures and representations of the Law which exercise power and which seem to be organized hierarchically. We perceive the appearances but not what is ‘behind’ them or whether there is something behind them at all. BUT: Everyone assumes that there is a structure, an order, a principle of justice, and everybody obeys. The Trial does not tell us what the Law is, The Trial tells us how the Law functions. It is present as a power, represented by a hierarchy that nobody understands as a whole. The society in The Trial is built on mere assumptions of an alleged order. Allegations, or taking things for granted, are the foundation of this society. And that is what has made Franz Kafka with The Trial an author of world literature up until the present day: He reveals modern societies as an ‘anonymous,’ ‘opaque,’ ‘enigmatic’ structure and as it is experienced by its members who believe that there is an order while such an ‘order’ can only be maintained by believing in it. Obeying the status quo can be read as a guilt or even sin, but there is no alternative to obedience as long as ignorance is not acknowledged as a constitutive part of modern humanity. That is why Joseph K. is not executed but killed “Like a dog!”
Hans Adler, Halls-Bascom Professor for Modern Literature Studies