By BOB HOOVER
The Trial is a theatrical adaptation by Nick Gill of the Franz Kafka novel. Like Kafka’s protagonist, Joseph K., we know very little about the world of this curious production independently produced and directed by Jeremy Seghers.
First, where is it? No signs were pointing the way to the small black box theater in the bowels of the Cathedral. Here’s how to find it: Enter the ground floor entrance on Bigelow Boulevard, find the elevators, and push “B.” Get off and turn to the left, where you’ll see a black sign on the wall pointing the way.
Second, who’s in the production of this unnamed theater company? Since there’s no program, who knows? Find the preview story in onStage Pittsburgh titled “A New Voice in Town” for some background.
Third, who’s Nick Gill, the adapter? A Brit whose version ran in London in 2015.
Fourth, what’s the source of the music that punctuates and drowns out the dialog? No idea.
Perhaps Seghers wanted to create – here’s that overused word – a Kafkaesque effect in a time when democratic principles are challenged across Europe and questioned in America.
Seghers, who also takes the tickets and operates the lighting and sound, made a smart decision to seize this clumsy version of a clumsy novel to remind us of how an autocratic, faceless government can act without reason or justification.
Kafka wrote The Trial during World War I, under the rule of the Austria-Hungarian Empire. This vast and repressive dual monarchy fired the first shots of that war. Kafka was an insurance company clerk who poured out short stories when he could. They were seldom published.
His book creates that sense of repression in its early pages, then repeats and repeats the absurdity of this alternative world to the point of boredom. Gill’s adaption follows a similar course, so it helps to have read the novel to understand the characters and the incidents that seemingly go nowhere.
Credit Seghers with choosing a talented cast headed by Sam Lander as Herr K., a confident banker and skirt chaser who gradually descends into madness in his fight against the indifferent legal system that has condemned him without reason. He builds K.’s disintegration with a sympathetic bewilderment.
Jess Ulher plays six female parts, and other cast members also double up. The Eventbrite site lists the nine actors without their biographies, which is too bad because they perform their various roles effectively.
The Trial lasts nearly two hours without intermission. Again, this production is as Kafkaesque as possible, leaving a gnawing feeling, as Sinclair Lewis warned us, that it can happen here.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
The Trial, produced and directed independently by Jeremy Seghers, has performances at the Richard Rauh Theater in the basement of the Cathedral of Learning in Oakland. Through June 29, 2025. Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-trial-by-franz-kafka-tickets-1320082866389
Categories: Arts and Ideas, Reviews
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