Apparat

Franz Kafka’s short story In the Penal Colony is a grotesque parable of a world shaped by violence and torture. In the stage adaptation by Prague’s Studio Hrdinů – one of the Czech Republic’s most renowned theatres – the torture machine becomes an archaeological site of observation, an echo chamber that opens up Kafka’s themes to multiple perspectives: the cruelty of bureaucratic systems, the individual caught in shame and entanglement, the looming shadow of totalitarianism. Where does our urge to witness the suffering of others lead us? And what responsibility comes with being a witness?

“It’s not easy to bring Kafka to the stage because his texts are so literary and initially exist only in language. But if you manage to translate the atmosphere created by the Jewish Prague writer into another medium, it opens up whole new possibilities for understanding what Kafka is talking about. We are delighted to welcome the Prague production Apparat to JOiN, because it is atmospherically dense and creates a mysterious tension in a very small space that is impossible to resist.“
Martin Mutschler, Co-director JOiN