Kafka
Director-Kiril Serebnikov
Gogol Center
3 hours and 20 minutes
Franz Kafka (1883–1924) is a writer, whose works were mostly published after his death (and against his will) and have disturbed and frightened the world for nearly a century. A genius, a prophet, the master of literary horror and absurdity, he is one of the most influential authors of all time. His life and creativity, his time, the romances that didn’t happen, strange encounters, all the delusions and revelations of a modest insurance clerk are brought to the Gogol center stage to create a true symphony.
The production by Kirill Serebrennikov, based on the biographical play by Valery Pecheikin, is a large-scale phantasmagoric canvas, a physically tangible voyage to the planet of Kafka. It contains Kafka’s horror, his peculiar humor, and bizarre beauty.
During the life of Franz Kafka was a humble clerk closed, literature was his secret hobby. By his own admission, he felt his "blood brothers" Flaubert, Dostoevsky and Gogol, but his manuscripts bequeathed to burn. However, friends broke the last wishes of the author. Kafka's work, filled with bizarre imagery and paradoxical stories, were published posthumously and brought him worldwide fame. Today Kafka is perceived as a brilliant madness of the prophet of the XX century, and its name has become synonymous with a particular type of absurdity.
Kafka's life was filled with a passionate desire to work, in his text are enormous energy, and the authors of the play it is important to show his personality in full and in all its complexity. Directed by Kirill Serebrennikov biographical motifs from the writer's life intertwined with stories generated by his imagination, but from the bestiary of Kafka's characters are, along with real people. In accordance with the plan playwright Valeri Pecheykin on stage are the characters' inner biography "Kafka: Since the summer of dogs and Gregor Samsa, transformed into a beetle, and ending with a fancy Odradek and people is a hero in his dreams.
Three facts of Kafka's life:
1. Max Brod. was instructed to destroy all of Kafka's unpublished works iIncluding the novels "The Trial" and the unfinished "The Castle". However, Wade broke the will of his friend and published them. Thus began the world fame of Kafka.
2. The family was for the writer, a place of permanent conflicts, especially with his father, who sent the famous letter to Kafka. Today this text is published as a separate literary work.
3. It is possible that conflicts in the family didn't allow Kafka to create his own family. Extensive Preserved dramatic correspondence was preserved dramaticwith Felitsiey Bauer, and Kafka's fiance, who never became his wife.
"The hardest part was finding and playback of absurdity that can not be confused with the nonsense. Absurd Kafka has a rigid internal logic, to find that it was one of my goals. I think we now live in a world where, as before, the measure of all is absurd and remains only to repeat after Kafka: "I would like to lead the world to clean, however, the inviolability"
Valery Pecheykin, playwright