Metamorphosis (London & tour)

Oh yes, the bug is indeed back. If you missed this physical theatre adaptation of Franz Kafka’s “six-legged nightmare” in its two previous seasons at the Lyric Hammersmith, don’t make the same mistake again. Co-adapted and co-directed by Lyric artistic director David Farr and Gisli Orn Gardarsson of pioneering Icelandic theatre company Vesturport, the piece remains a weird and wonderful delight.

From the wordless ten-minute opening sequence – showing the mundane daily routines of the Samsa family – to the shattering aerial conclusion 85 interval-free minutes later, both set to the haunting music of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Metamorphosis never ceases to both mesmerise and unsettle.

Bjorn Thors has scuttled into Orn Gardarsson’s shoes (?) as the transformed Gregor, climbing the walls and dangling from the ceiling with breathtaking agility. Fellow Icelanders Elva Osk Olafsdottir and Unnur Osp Stefansdottir have taken over as Gregor’s mother and daughter alongside the always reliable Tom Mannion as his alarmed father, while Jonathan McGuinness reprises his role as potential lodger Herr Fischer, whose horror condemns Gregor to his fate.

– Terri Paddock

NOTE: The following FOUR-STAR review dates from October 2006 and this production’s original run at the Lyric Hammersmith.

Gisli Orn Gardarsson doesn’t look much like a spindly-legged insect. A tall, muscular gymnast with the regulation number of limbs for a human being, he doesn’t easily elicit the physical disgust expressed by other characters in this adaptation of Franz Kafka’s novella. One should not, of course, to be too literal-minded in the theatre, especially in a show part-produced by the recklessly innovative Icelandic company, Vesturport. Nevertheless, anyone coming fresh to the story, unless they read the “Body Politics” section of the informative programme, might not be aware of the specific nature of Gregor Samsa’s transformation.

But for director-adaptors Gardarsson and David Farr this might not be much of a problem; they clearly do not want the audience to lose sight of Gregor’s humanity or of the idea that Kafka may have been dealing metaphorically with the alienation of certain groups in society. In fact, they drive this home perhaps too insistently in the final stages, suggesting that Kafka, who wrote Metamorphosis in 1912, was foreshadowing the Holocaust which would destroy many members of his family. He himself died of tuberculosis in 1924.

Vesturport – here in partnership with the Lyric under Farr in his first season as artistic director – has acquired a name for exciting, physical theatre by taking cheeky liberties with classic texts. Circus skills, gymnastics and unexpected musical choices gave Romeo and Juliet (Young Vic and Playhouse) and Woyzeck (Young Vic /Barbican) a particular irreverent spice. This time, Gardarsson employs his gymnastic skills to great effect to show both the pain and pleasure of movement in his insect form. Death signified by hanging in a length of circus silk (known as a tissu) is something we’ve seen before, but it still has a kind of poignant dramatic flourish.

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, composers for Woyzeck, contribute brilliantly to the tension of Gregor’s story. Their rippling, plucking sounds combine gentleness with a sinister quality which is matched in Hartley T A Kemp’s lighting. Borkur Jonsson’s set design, showing Gregor suffering in his room (which we see from the perspective of the ceiling) while his family attempt to regain normality downstairs, has just the right claustrophobic respectability.

While Kafka gives us a person enduring unimaginable horror, a stage adaptation can’t help but put more emphasis on the way others attempt to deal with what has happened to him. The rest of the cast, especially Nina Dogg Filippusdottir as Gregor’s sister Grete, first sympathetic and then murderous, rise to the challenge magnificently. This is a riveting piece of theatre, capturing some of the same weird fascination found in Kafka’s story.

– Heather Neill