METAMORPHOSIS. Based on the works of Franz Kafka, dir. Oliver FRLJIĆ

Director, adaptation author — Oliver FRLJIĆ

Set designer, video projection author — Igor PAUŠKA

Costume designer — Morta NAKAITĖ

Artist — Dainius URBONIS

Assistant director — Augustas GORNATKEVIČIUS

Producer — Agnė PULOKAITĖ

CAST

Rasa SAMUOLYTĖ, Rimantė VALIUKAITĖ, Gediminas RIMEIKA, Aistė ZABOTKAITĖ, Algirdas GRADAUSKAS, Kęstutis CICĖNAS, Marius Michailas REPŠYS, Rytis SALADŽIUS, Augustė ŠIMULYNAITĖ, Vaidilė JUOZAITYTĖ, Jūratė VILŪNAITĖ, Toma VAŠKEVIČIŪTĖ.

You can kill a man, but you cannot force him to be someone else. (Robert Antelme)

How, when, and why do we stop looking at the Other as a human being? At the very core of Franz Kafka's work, one can always grasp the various forms of dehumanization being examined. The story of Gregor Samsa, who turned into an insect, raises the question of what the limits of our empathy for another are: how the process of identification takes place, how the Other is constructed, and whether we are capable of accepting the Other as part of humanity. This play aims to examine the complex dialectical relationship between two different political (in the broad sense) mechanisms: empathetic identification on one hand, and dehumanization on the other.

The field of meanings in Kafka's works is incredibly broad, not yielding to simple, unambiguous interpretations. In seeking to open up their different levels, the most important thing in the play is to establish a dialogue with the reality in which we live.

On July 28, 1914, the First World War began, and just a few days later, F. Kafka began writing perhaps his most famous novel, "The Trial" (which remained unfinished and was published without the writer's permission only after his death). And although these two events are not linked by mutual causality, the experience of war is evident both in this and in other works by the writer. Researchers of Kafka's work claim that in "The Trial," he foresaw the totalitarian ideologies that soon entangled Europe, and also predicted the nature of that war. When Russia started the war against Ukraine on February 24, it was said that this war would begin the next stage of European history and introduce a new world order. Thus, it may be that we, Europeans of the 2020s, like Kafka, who became a contemporary of the First World War, will experience an era of upheaval after which a new order will prevail in the world.

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) was a prominent Austrian novelist who wrote in German. He is considered one of the most unique and influential writers of the 20th century, a pioneer of modernism, and is also named by surrealists as one of their predecessors. He was born into a Jewish family, studied chemistry and German studies, and later chose to study Law, much to the delight of his domineering father, who considered his literary ambitions to be futile delusions. He worked almost his entire life at a workers' insurance company in Prague, immersing himself in the world of literature during his free time from the bureaucratic work he hated. He constantly felt the contradiction between his social life and his creative calling, and suffered greatly because of it. He was extremely strict with his own work, and a significant portion of his works were published without his consent only after the writer's death.