Who’s the Real Animal Here? By Holly Moniz

Who’s the Real Animal Here? By Holly Moniz

A bed hanging on the far wall of a young man’s room, a backlight illuminating the silhouette of a massive insect, a human head peeking through the covers and a mouth speaking to its family while hands press against ears and eyes squint in pain at the “noise” coming out of the young man’s mouth.

At the start of the Lyric Hammersmith-Vesturport production of Metamorphosis, an adaptation of Franz Kafka’s novella, the set and the light design of the stage at The Paramount Theatre in Boston, MA make it simple for the play’s audience to understand protagonist Gregor Samsa’s transformation from human son to strange bug, a tremendous accomplishment considering actor and co-director Gísli Örn Gardarsson’s costume never truly changes his human appearance once throughout the play.

Most crucial to this continuously seeing this transformation is the use of a split stage. The audience views the majority of the set as the cross section of the interior of the Samsa home. However, we are shown Gregor’s bedroom from a bird’s eye view, as though we are looking down on a bug crawling across the floor, a choice Gardarsson’s incredibly athletic and acrobatic performance makes entirely believable.

On the other hand, moments of seamless execution of what I can only assume to be precise direction by David Farr and Gísli Örn Gardarsson unveil the real transformation at the heart of this play: the family’s attitude toward Gregor.

From the moment the play begins, the audience gets the uncomfortable sense that the Samsa family pays close attention to the details as we watch the family’s musically choreographed morning routine. Herman Samsa, Gregor’s father played by actor Ingvar E. Sigurdsson, appears particularly obsessed with the particulars, whether it be the manner in which he closes his newspaper after he finishes reading an article or the way he clicks his heels while in uniform after he is forced to find work when his bug-son is not permitted to venture beyond the boundary of his bedroom.

And although the father’s already stern attitude worsens toward Gregor as the story unfolds, sister Greta’s attitude (played by actress Selma Björnsdóttir) undergoes the most significant change in the play, as marked by the simultaneously beautiful and horrific scene in which Greta beats her brother into submission as the lights in Gregor’s room flash on and off in black and white stripes that mimic prison cell bars. While she had initially been the only family member willing to feed and care for her brother Gregor, her inability to understand him frustrates her to this breaking point, and she, too, treats Gregor as an inferior.

The Lyric Hammersmith-Vesturport adaptation of Metamorphosis revitalizes Kafka’s story and artfully addresses the issues surrounding discrimination and dehumanization around the world in a new, never-before-seen way that will captivate its audience members. But while Gregor may have transformed into a literal bug during the first scene of the play, the piece begs the question: Who is the real animal here?