Metamorphosis
by Franz Kafka
Adapted by Steven Berkoff
Directed by Kaan Nazli
Dramaturgy: Melis Bilgin
Music: Rick Zaragosa
Set Design: Jason Devaney
Cast:Sean Doran (Gregor), Jack Drucker (Mr. Samsa), Madalyn McKay (Mrs. Samsa),Joy Nirenstein (Greta), Karl Allen (Clerk/Lodger)

Six performances

ArcLight Theater
152 West 71st Street
(between Broadway and Columbus Avenue)
New York, NY 10023

Wednesday, May 5, 2004, 8:00 PM
Tickets at Box Office

Thursday, May 6, 2004, 8:00 PM
Tickets at Box Office

Friday, May 7, 2004, 8:00 PM
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Saturday, May 8, 2004, 3:00 PM
Tickets at Box Office

Saturday, May 8, 2004, 8:00 PM
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Sunday, May 9, 2004, 3:00 PM
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Tickets: $15 (adult), $10 (students with valid ID)

Steven Berkoff's Metamorphosis is a part of a three-play trilogy inspired by Franz Kafka's renowned novels The Trial, The Metamorphosis, and In the Penal Colony. Kafka's The Metamorphosis is a parable about a humble, industrious man who, upon waking one morning, finds himself transformed into a gigantic beetlelike insect. The protagonist, Gregor Samsa, becomes an object of disgrace to his family and friends. His metamorphosis is both physical and psychological, and through his harrowing and absurdly comic journey Gregor Samsa comes to represent the quintessential outsider and alien.

As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of the modern man." Hence, Berkoff's adaptation of this parable has a timeless relevance, especially for the inhabitants of a city where feelings of alienation and isolation are de rigeur. It is this theme that director Kaan Nazli aims to explore in this production. Nazli likens the struggle of New York's working class to Gregor Samsa's desperate attempts to overcome his new condition. By plunging into the unconscious areas of Gregor's imagination, Nazli a nd the cast explore the relationship between the outsider and society-at-large. What emerges is the frailty of human endeavor, as well as a new awareness of the greed and ambition present in the protective sanctuary of the bourgeois family. A man becomes an insect only to find that his family wavers between accepting and rejecting him; ultimately destroying him through neglect.

Our special thanks to Arclight Theatre, Digital Film Academy, and Fazil's Dance Studios.