Surreally brilliant,
Franz Kafka wrote some of the world's most questioning and questing tales. Including one entitled
"A Report to An Academy", which is in the form of an address, given to the academy of the title, by an ape called Red Peter, who tells the story of his capture by humans and his eventual realisation that the only way to achieve freedom again is to assimilate into human society. His report follows the realisation of that plan, via a conscious development of a taste for spitting, smoking, moving, drinking rum and speaking like his captors. This one woman, or one ape show, is that story, brought to the stage and renamed
Kafka's Monkey.
The actress who plays a monkey playing a man is
Kathryn Hunter, who's won countless accolades for this role after creating it in 2009 for the Young Vic. She's been touring it all over the world since, and this is the first time she's been back here performing.
One of the most interesting things about this many starred (as in star ratings not many theatrical stars) production are the layers of performance that Kathryn gives. She must first be a monkey in order that she may progress upwards in evolution to the status of man. But the monkey itself isn't playing just any man, he's learned from his brutal sailor captors and has ended up treading the boards as a very successful Vaudevillian performer, complete with top hat, cane and tails. So the nuances and detail in her performance are nothing short of magical. There's a constant play between what percentage of her is monkey and what percentage man. Sometimes it's 95% one way and 5% the other and then it will reverse and surprise you as you see the simian way the cap is taken off his hip flask and the black of his maw as he drinks. It's honestly captivating.
And it will make you think differently the next time you look a monkey in the eyes in the zoo. You'll not just be wondering what he's thinking, you may also question:
'Are we really as far above the rest of the animal kingdom as we think?'But as well as leading you towards considering the monkey psyche, this play will also make you think about what it's like to be 'the other' and to try and fit in, and what it costs you to do so. This adaptation really does this fascinating, yet simple story justice.
