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*Metamorphosis will play at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre in Wollongong from 15–19 April, and at the Sydney Theatre, Walsh Bay, from 22 April to 2 May.

Image credit: Eddi

POSTED: 29 MARCH 2009

Metamorphosis

(Lyric Hammersmith & Vesturport Theatre | Ten Days on the Island | Theatre Royal, Hobart | Until 1 Apr)*

Gregor Samsa wakes one morning to find he has been transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He can still think and speak but his family doesn’t understand him. As the chilling tale unfolds, Gregor becomes our conscience, while, one by one, his family unites in sacrificing him out of self-interest.

A short story written by Franz Kafka during World War I, Metamorphosis has been adapted into a scintillating theatrical coproduction by Iceland’s Vesturport and the United Kingdom’s Lyric Hammersmith. It has an original soundtrack, by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, integrated into the 85-minute performance, adding another layer to Kafka’s tale of alienation on one hand and the descent into inhumanity on the other.

As Gregor becomes more insectlike physically, his compassion grow for others, while his family — his father immediately, then his mother and finally his sister — lose theirs as they deal with the perceived monster in their midst.

It has been adapted and directed by David Farr and Gisli Orn Gardarsson, and is performed in English by a wonderful English and Icelandic cast. Gardarsson, who plays Gregor, gives a spellbinding performance.

A travelling salesman working impossibly long hours to keep his family afloat during the long dark hours of winter in northern Europe, Gregor cracks and seemingly bursts out of his grey suit. Tall and lean, Gardarsson was a national gymnast and he scuttles over the walls and ceiling as if he was a cockroach.

The stage is split horizontally which adds to the effect: the family’s living room is below, and above, linked by a steep staircase, is Gregor's bedroom, in which he gives his extraordinary performance. This is no insertion of acrobatics into a play for the sake of spectacle; it is integral to the production. So much so, there is no suspension of disbelief — the man in a suit crawling up the wall is an insect.

Gardarsson wanted to extend the possibilities of the spoken word into a spatial realm and he succeeds brilliantly. In an interview with Matthew Westwood in The Australian (26 March), he said: “Theatre is always best when you don’t have to have a lot of text, I think. It’s always better seeing and experiencing it rather than having it spoken.”

Just as the world has spun on its axis ever more cruelly since World War I and the Samsas could be transposed into any group that loses moral bearings, Gregor could equally represent a pawn in today’s financial crisis. In the same article Gardarsson said Gregor could be “the businessman waking up one day and his world is turned upside down”.