19:00, Tue 17th – Sat 21st October 2023 at Corpus Playroom
Michaelmas Week 2
Content warning (may contain spoilers) Click to expandClick to close
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect !
Gregor Samsa has worked. And worked. And worked. All his life. As a travelling salesman, Gregor works relentlessly to support his struggling family. His mother, a worried and endlessly busy housewife who cares deeply for her family, his father, hyper critical ‘in-the-home’ tyrant who’s terrified of authority, and his little sister Greta, a promising violinist who looks up to him, find their home turned into a world of horror as Gregor wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a “gigantic insect!”. Whilst Gregor struggles to survive, keep any sense of mental clarity and desperately longs to return to human form, his family’s opinions swiftly devolve from sympathy to despair and hatred as they live in terror both of their son they so desperately relied upon, and in constant fear of his discovery. Berkoff’s adaptation of Kafka’s iconic novella explores the effects of a ‘money-driven’ society’s pressure on the individual and the strain it causes on family relationships in a powerful and moving way which will make you reassess what takes does and what should take priority in life.