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 examined forms of dehumanization. The story of Gregor Samsa, who turned into an insect, raises the question of the limits of our empathy for another: how the process of identification takes place, how the Other is constructed, and whether we are able to accept 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 order 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 what is arguably his most famous novel, "The Trial" (which remained unfinished and was published without the author's permission only after his death). And although these two events are not connected by mutual causality, the experience of war is evident both in this and in the author's other works. Researchers of Kafka's work claim that in "The Trial," he foresaw the totalitarian ideologies that soon engulfed 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 breakthrough, after which a new order will prevail in the world.