Kafka's Monkey

Synopsis

'Honoured members of the Academy! You have done me the honour of inviting me to give you an account of the life I formerly led as an ape.' Imprisoned in a cage and desperate to escape, the ape-man reveals his rise through the ranks of the beasts to become a walking, talking, spitting, smoking, hard-drinking man of the stage.

Our Review:

26 May 2011

Based on Kafka’s short story A Report to an Academy, Kafka's Monkey sees Red Peter deliver a lecture about his former life - as an ape. Telling the academy that in a desperate attempt to escape captivity, he aped his human captors and soon "reached the cultural level of the average European", Red Peter’s extraordinary transformation has given him fame (he is a star on the Vaudeville stage) and allowed him at least the "mockery" of human freedom. However, this comes at a great cost.

As Red Peter, Kathryn Hunter’s incredibly physical performance is staggering. She creates an eerily convincing human/monkey hybrid, deftly switching between the grace of a ballerina and the crudeness if an ape. Bringing the play’s difficult ideas to life, her tiny, elastic body fills the stage (beautifully lit by Mike Gunning), comfortably moving from profound philosophical questions to silly banana gags.


In just one exhilarating hour Kafka&...