Metamorphosis, reviewed by Marc Foster

The Vesturport and Lyric Hammersmith Theatres'
adaptation of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis

The stage went dark, a light shown from behind a bed illuminated the silhouette of bug-like form. A young man’s face popped out, through the covers, surprising the audience with its expressionistic features. Gisli Orn Gardarsson co-produced this production of “Metamorphosis” with David Farr, creating a dark and sometimes comedic atmosphere about a man who suddenly turns into a gigantic cockroach. Along with co-producing the show, Gardarsson played Gregor Samsa, the central character turned into the insect. Gregor's father Herman, played by Ingvar E. Sigurdsson, started beating him the first time he saw Gregor in his new form, one of many beatings that Gregor received throughout the play.

While only seeing the bug in the first few scenes of the play, Gardarsson played the role of a gigantic cockroach convincingly. With Gregor’s room positioned so the audience was looking down on it, Gardarsson was able to swing from wall to wall as a bug would. Gardarsson’s amazing acrobatics allowed him to be versatile on the stage, barely standing upright in any one scene, crawling and climbing the walls of the set.

Gardarsson’s ability to convince the audience of Gregor’s transformation allowed the viewer to experience the play on a much more human level. When Herman, or Gregor’s sister Greta, played by Selma Björnsdóttir, beat Gregor the viewer saw Gregor not as a bug but as a human getting beaten. The audience was able to see what the characters in the play could not, that Gregor was still the same person as before he was turned into a cockroach.

The magnificent two story set was perfect for this play because we were able to see Gregor up in his room neglected, hungry, and weak while the family tried to get on with their lives right downstairs. As Herr Fischer a rich, snobby business man, played by Víkingur Kristjánsson, tried to rent out one of the Samsa’s rooms, Gregor made an appearance through the ceiling, breaking through the set and falling on the table on the first floor. The other actors immidiately cringed at the sight of him. Written on their faces was disgust and horror, and they pinched their nose as if there was a foul smell. They covered their eyes and backed into corners to get as far away from Gregor as possible, as if he was not worthy of human interaction.

The sights of Gregor being mistreated and beaten by his family brought the idea of civil rights into the mind of many of the people in the audience. The Samsa family, by the end of play, had forgotten that this insect was their son and treated him as they would an insect. The actors showed the audience that this family had given up on their son and were waiting for him to die. Gardarsson’s amazing directing and acting in this production created a dark atmosphere that displayed human nature at its worst.