In Kafka’s Monkey, an ape called Red Peter (Kathryn
Hunter) addresses an academy audience
(tacitly us) to give a symposium on how he was taken from captivity and learned
to live among the world of men, adopting, as best he can, their mannerisms, speech, dress and decorum. To
articulate what is no doubt already obvious, the story is a metaphorical treatment
of cultural assimilation.
Adapted
by Colin Teevan from a first-person
narrative Kafka short story titled, fittingly enough, A Report to
an Academy, this
production of the Young Vic, imported
from London, is one of those strange theatrical novelties that can have a
gemlike singularity for some. Certainly it has a fringe sensibility, and the
notion of actress as lecturing male monkey (in a bowler hat, vest and suit no
less), holding stage for 75 minutes of reminiscence, sociological observation
and philosophy is among the more daring conceits I can think of.
Whether
it holds for you all the way through may depend on your tolerance for a
narrative that has great verbal elegance but little story surprise—what
else could such a story be but the chronicle of how unfortunate it is that assimilation only comes at the cost of
one’s indigenous monkeyness?—but the gargantuan fearlessness, commitment
and sheer bravura physicality of ironically diminutive Kathryn Hunter’s
portrayal gives it every possible advantage. Her manifestation of the inner war
between old instincts and new requirements is nothing short of virtuosic. (The
director of the total enterprise is Walter Meierjohann, though
over the piece’s gestation period, there were ten movement, monkey and dance
specialists helping refine Ms. Hunter’s physical approach.)
If
an important part of your theatergoing life is discovering unexpected nuggets
of remarkable experience off the beaten path, Kafka’s Monkey well earns its keep on your “to see” list.
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