Introduction
In 1915 the novella Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung) was published by the Czech-Jewish novelist Franz Kafka, which is considered a masterpiece around the world because of its originality. The time period of the story is assigned in the early twentieth century and combines the elements of fantasy, tragicomedy, and realism. The story is about a traveling salesman named Gregor Samsa who is responsible for maintaining his family although one morning he wakes up as a cockroach, causing a downward spiral because he loses his job which makes his family poor and becomes a burden for his family until he dies, thus his family continues to live relieved their life in the countryside. Steven Berkoff is considered an inspirational practitioner in British theater. This is because his productions are recognized as controversial and found a lasting place in world theater. His adaptation of the story had its premiere in 1969; the play is visually attractive due to its physicality and is quite minimalistic, also the adaptation includes new themes such as violence, betrayal, sympathy, and horror. The play targets on the physicality and characterization of the actors rather than any political, social, or moral content. It is important to study Metamorphosis because it is considered as a classic in world literature, as well the adaptation is also known to be one of the best plays Steven Berkoff has produced. This opens a debate because it creates many different perspectives, for instance many people think that the play’s themes were opposite to the author's purpose or that Gregor metamorphosis was visually grotesque for the audience although in the book it was not supposed to be like that. Furthermore it is interesting to learn about how the story evolves in different time periods and also to analyse the contrast between the original text and the adaptation. I am going to demonstrate how Berkoff successfully adapts Kafka’s Metamorphosis to stage through illustrating the bug, family duty, and economic effects on human relationships.
Context
Franz Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 he had quite a solitary live which explains why he never married although he was engaged several times and spent most of his life with his parents. His father was an autocratic retailer and had an unsociable mother. He gained a doctorate in law and then started working at the Worker’s Accident Insurance Institute in Prague 1908-22, although he thought this job was an obstacle for his writing. Even though Prague was a Czechoslovakian city it had a small community of Germans and most of the Jews identified themselves with them which explains why Kafka wrote in German, as a child he wrote a lot although he was very critical about his work which explains why most of them were destroyed. To publish Metamorphosis he needed encouragement from his friend who was a writer called Max Brod however he was never satisfied with it; in the last years of his life he felt so pessimistic about his work that he wanted his unfinished work to be destroyed and also he did not wanted his previous work to be republished however this was ignored which explains why know at days we know this two masterpieces: The Trial and The Castle. After his three sisters died in the Holocaust in 1945 he achieved full recognition for his amazing revelation of totalitarianism and alienation, this gave birth to the word “Kafkaesque” which is a term used to describe someone who is oppressed by organizations or an unknown force. The contemplative nature and symbolism of his novels is due to it's discomforting sense of spiritual oppression and frustration; the strange moments of his stories seem eerie by the reader although some interprets claim that he tries to portray the hidden theme of “humanity's vain struggle to establish a relationship with God”.
The purpose of the metamorphosis of Gregor in the book is his attempt to escape from his own dilema which is discovering himself over his illogical situation on the company he works for. This illogical situation will be that there is no human dimension in what he is doing, this is shown when he said “All the casual; acquaintances never become intimate friends” however the metamorphosis is never explicitly shown which is part of his absurd and random meaning of life. Although the story is presented to us as a fantasy we can see that when Gregor is transformed his concerns about his family and finances remain the same, Gregor’s appearance is linked to his perception of which demonstrates how mind and body are connected this is represented by his selfless side and loyalty to an extent that he has sacrificed his own body. While his transformation is dehumanizing him we can see his family’s concern which demonstrates their love for him although further in the story that what they really worry about is the financial aid he gave them, also we can see that his unable to accomplish his previous purpose in life which was being responsible for his family although know his transformation blocks him and focus on discovering his true self.
In the book we can see three clear themes: the first one would be the relationship between body and mind which is the main just like Stanley Corngold said “NOTHING in the ample literature on The Metamorphosis can change the fact that the central event in Kafka's story is the transformation of Gregor Samsa into a hideous insect.” this is clearly shown when Gregor transforms into a cockroach“as Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect”This shows the reader Kafka’s purpose which is that the body is more powerful than the mind because when Gregor wakes up he is worried on his responsibility of sustaining his family rather than his body transformation; although on a deeper level throughout the novella it is shown that Gregor starts to lose his humanity as he is spending more time as a cockroach. This is because his insect appearance is controlling his behaviour and choices which explains why Kafka’s view is that “human reasoning is feeble and easily overcome by bodily realities”. This links to society at the time were people work in humdrum and monotonous jobs which caused alienation meaning that the body is more powerful than the mind and it is also reflected on Gregor autocratic behaviour.Conversely, this associates to the second and third which are family duty and the economic effects on human relationships. Firstly family duty is clearly shown when Gregor said to himself "What a quiet life our family has been leading,"This suggests that he was proud of maintaining his family giving them a wealthy lifestyle, nonetheless know that he is a cockroach he is unable to work which means that his pride and his family’s lifestyle vanishes. However throughout the metamorphosis of Gregor we can see he becomes a burden to his family which explains why when he dies his family feel free; this may relate to Kafka’s relationship with his own family as he was disconnected from them although he felt responsible to make them proud. As well this links with Kafka’s father and him were the Oedipus complex was very common at the time and it is reflected by Gregor which feels totally responsible of the fate of his family also this links to the way people lived at the time were for high class it was common to have maids and or butlers who were in charge of doing the daily chores and with the absence of them Gregor’s family status will decrease. The economic effects on human relationship is shown throughout the novella because it reveals a raw truth which explains that Gregor’s family only appreciate him because he is the income source of the family and as Gregor loses his ability to produce it his family starts to neglect him. Kafka wanted to show this truth to the audience as a response to industrialization because he was strongly against the way capitalism seeked homogeneity which dehumanized people. At the time he wrote the novella the Expressionist movement arise fighting for the expression of emotions and the humans individuality, also Existentialism is presented were Gregor is responsible of his fate due to the harsh economic situation he lives in. Guilt is a very important theme in the book because it exposes Gregor’s insecurities; this is shown when he starts to notice that his family slowly becomes bankrupt to the point that even his sister’s desire to become a professional musician becomes a collateral damage which makes Gregor feel impotent and responsible for ruining the life of his family especially his sister’s.
Steven Berkoff focusing on rehearsals for the 1992 Mitsubishi Theater (Tokyo) production of his adaptation of Kafka's Metamorphosis, muses on the nine previous productions of the play over a twenty three year span, starting with his own performance as Gregor Samsa in 1969 at the Roundhouse (London) and taking in the productions in Los Angeles in 1982 with Brad Davis, 1986 at the Mermaid in London with Tim Roth, 1988 in Paris with Roman Polanski and 1989 in New York with Mikhail Baryshnikov. It was a difficult challenge to represent “introvert, artist, Jew, writer” in Berkoff's opinion but it was also an eulogy for him. He identified himself with the same idea as Kafka which is that everything that is despised which is often depicted in history and therefore is a “mere bug under peoples feet” Kafka shows this by showing how he was despised by his father as Gregor was; which implies that Gregor becomes a symbol for all despised humanity who are: humble, struggle day to day to keep up with their lives, stay in the status quo, and are unable of sustaining their families. Until this endless persecution kills them which is why the bug is a symbol of the physical and inner consequences of being treated as badly as Gregor because throughout the book he is shown to be the slave of his mother and sister, useless and invisible to the eyes of his father, and leans on him heavily as the other members of his family. Berkoff emphasises that he sees Gregor as Kafka sees all his characters “contestants” this is because Gregor is always fighting for his own survival and his family stability although we can see that the circumstances that surround him disenable him to do so.
Hence this explains why the first challenge of Bekoff was to stage something so surreal as a bug which has a great importance in the imagination of the author; which brings to this question if the bug is a symbol, how do physicalize it on stage? Well, we know that this is crucial to the play because it shows to the audience Gregors transition: From a horrendous bug, to it's inevitable death, to the deep meaning of sacrifice, or to the sacrifice of others causing a martyrdom. Nonetheless this also helped Berkoff to come up with the performance style of the play, he mentions that extreme physicality would be needed to represent Gregor as a bug. Thus to achieve this when he performed the role of Gregor he had to train at the gym to be able to hang from the scaffolding of the set because the environment of the bug must be the play (Amber Lane Press edition). As well Berkoff talks about the family move like “animated marionettes” to show that not only Gregor is transforming portraying that they are also trapped in a “bug existence”. Furthermore he estates that music is crucial to “underline” the movements staged in the play and uses the term Total theatre which was intended to bash through the barriers of feelings which create a reaction that holded by the audience reason, creating a sensory experience which could not be explained, and thus reduced, by intellect. Which links with the work of Antonin Artaud.