Metamorphosis, reviewed by Kalyn Lai

The Vesturport and Lyric Hammersmith production
of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis

A brilliant creative take on a groundbreaking novel

by Kalyn Lai

Gregor Samsa, hanging by a blood red curtain, his death.  His family stands looking, then throws the body down and swings off into the future together, literally.  This was the twisted ending of Vesturport Theatre and Lyric Hammersmirth Theatre’s theatre version of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis.  Each detail in this play was carefully created and brilliantly designed. 

Seeing this production in Arts Emerson’s Paramount Center Mainstage in Boston, I was instantly captivated by the set.  The set consisted of a two-story set, viewing the house as if it was a dollhouse.  But what caught my attention was Gregor’s room.  I was looking down into the room instead of a side view.  I was even more amazed when Gísli Örn Gardarsson, the actor who played Gregor Samsa, used his acrobatic skills to create the illusion that we in fact were seeing his room from a birds-eye view.  This was unlike anything I had seen before and I was amazed at how well performed and how strong he was.

The lighting was well done.  To be able to fill the entire house with light and be able to create a realistic lighting is difficult and the company achieved this difficult task.  At some points, the lighting was unrealistic, but it helped to put more emphasis on emotions and tension occurring in the theatre production.  Near the end of the play, Gregor comes crashing through the ceiling.  His family is terrified and falls to the floor.  Lighting coming from the side of the stage created shadows on the wall, which gave that moment a more dramatic feeling.

Gísli Örn Gardarsson, who played Gregor Samsa in the play, was also co-director of the show along with David Farr.  These two men together took Kafka’s novel and created a new piece that resembled the book but changed it just enough to emphasize the Samsa family finding Gregor a burden and wanting to move on with their lives; Gregor realizing this, commits suicide, partially from grief and partially trying to relive his family from him.

The directors composed The Metamorphosis carefully and it shows with every little detail or the stage, the sound, and the acting how creative they are.  They transformed an influential; piece of fiction into a beautifully staged tragedy.