Der Prozess, Kafka’s remarkable work of
literature, tells the story of humankind in twentieth century which is also
known as the age of fear. It’s as not popular as Die Verwandlung, yet it’s possible to see
the same metaphoric language and dark atmosphere surrounding the novel. As soon as I heard that novel was dramatized
by Bilkent Drama Atelier, I went to see it on the stage. This would be quite a
different performance, as I had never seen any work of Kafka on a theatre stage.
The
play is about a man named K. who wakes up in a morning and realizes that he is
sued by someone for something that he doesn’t know what. He is a common man,
working in a common bank and living in a common rest house. However, one day,
his routine life totally changes. Two men come his house and say that he is
arrested. The case is complicated and shocking as well. He is never informed
which crime he has committed and which rule he has violated in law. Everybody
he comes across accepts him as a criminal but he is free to do his daily
routine. Court procedures are applied
somewhere away. No one can see behind the scenes. Although the prosecution
process takes many years, no one is acquitted. K. does whatever he can in order to going for
an appeal, he takes everyone’s advice around him, but nothing can be effective.
At the end of the play, he meets a priest who claims that K. doesn’t understand
anything. The priest shots him down and K. is dead.
Along
the play, a case is mentioned anyone doesn’t think what it really is. Everyone
is nervous and hopeless. A depressive tone pervades the whole play. Normally, it’s possible to find K.’s thought
of his own situation in the original novel. In the process of dramatizing, an
extremely successful and aesthetic way is preferred to share this thought with
the audience. There are two prisoners kept in barred cells. They are dressed in
white and black striped clothes and their face are painted white. Their eyes are always wide open and they
look at the audience with dismay. We
can hear K.’s thought from these people’s mouths. These living figures speak in such a mechanic and disturbing tone
that the dark atmosphere pervading the play is strengthen. I am attracted by especially this part of
the play, it is well concerned.
To give
extended information about the stage, everywhere is black, corresponding the
gloomy atmosphere of the play. Furniture like tables and chairs are
modest. As the places are always
changing through the play, the setting is also supposed to change. Bilkent
Drama Atelier finds a nice way to do that. Whenever the setting is supposed to
change, the light on the stage are dimmed and in the dim light, properties are
replaced with the help of technical team behind the scene. At
the same time, a sound base which is corresponding to the gloomy air of the
play is listened to the audience. Actually, a regular theatre audience is
accustomed to it, yet Bilkent Drama Atelier does it in such a good way that I
can’t help appreciating it.
The one and
only criticism about the play would be related to the acting performances of
the players. They are not professional theatre actors and actresses, of course,
but I know that they get a diction education at the very beginning of the
atelier workshop. Based on this information, I can say that many of them fail
to articulate the words properly. This make the audience feel uncomfortable and
distract. If they solve this problem, I believe that they will put much more
successful works in performance.
In the novel,
the reader is never informed what the case is really about. Thus the readers
have to realize by means of reasoning and imagination that the case is highly
related to the existence of human being. However, in the play any clue is given
to the audience about the case, but the reader can make the expected
interpretation due to the dark and depressive atmosphere which are strictly
kept through the whole play. It’s possible to sense that there is a certain
problem with the existence of human being. The problem is not only about the
existence, he criticizes insincere relation among man and corrupted social
institutions and god. At the beginning of this writing, I mentioned the age of
fear. Kafka tries to show us that how fear directs our relationship between
social institutions and god. Because of the fear, we avoid questioning the
ultimate reason of these authorities in our life. We fear they would threaten
or damage our existence on earth. Thus, we leave no stone unturned to deserve
their respect, although this costs our lives and our self-respect.
At the end of
the play, K.’ is shot by the priest whom he goes to demand help. This shooting
scene is presented in quite a realistic way, they use a blank cartridge. The
pace of the play is at the top to the end of the play. I liked the
dramatization of Kafka’s Der Prozess presented by Bilkent Drama Atelier. It
is an original but hard choice to dramatize, but they overcome it in a very
successful way.
Meltem Aydın (ELIT III)
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