⭐️ / 5
As a huge fan of physical theatre and the expressionist movement, I was looking forward to the newest production by Frantic Assembly. Thus, I recently inclined myself to attend a production of their adaptation of Kafka’s classic ‘Metamorphosis’, and boy was I disappointed.
For me, this play completely abandoned the beating heart of the original, leaving it a terminal mess of meaningless physical sequences and scenes that chased themselves around attempting to ‘be deep’.
Some notable examples include:
1) A complete inability to suspend disbelief on the transformation of man to bug due to the absolute ridiculousness of the movements the hapless director gave to the lead.
2) An incestous relationship between the sister and the bug which is immediately forgotten in favour of more random physical movement.
3) Absolutely no resolution in characters or in relationships. No meaningful emotional journey for any character.
4) Long, rambling, boring monologues from both the Mother and Father, clearly added simply to A) increase the running time and B) give the actors a larger role (pertaining to the fact neither had many lines at all aside from these monologues).
I would write more, but I cannot bring myself to list all of the issues as I would be writing for pages and pages, and we’d all be as bored as I was whilst watching this mess.
However, credit where credit is due in terms of interesting lighting in moments. One of the only moments I enjoyed throughout the show was when Gregor was swinging about the stage on a swing centre stage and between blackouts, he shone a torch into the audience. I am always up for fun lighting choices such as that so it was a mildly enjoyable moment.
All I have to say about this is that I am truly confused as to when the quality of Frantic Assembly deteriorated so dramatically. Seems only yesterday we were enjoying the absolute pleasure that is ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime’.
I guess what I mean is, we want a little more Curious, and much less Metamorphosis.
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