Kafka’s Monkey

HOME, Manchester

5/5

ADAPTED by Colin Teevan, this play is based on Franz Kafka’s intriguing short story A Report to an Academy, where a domesticated ape — Red Peter, so named because of the scar he received when shot by hunters — is invited to give a lecture to the esteemed members of the institution.

He describes his journey from a captive beast to a human with the “average education of a European” and how, once captured, he comes to realise he has two options — a zoo or the circus. The first is merely swapping one cage for another and, while the circus may appear to offer some kind of escape, he has no illusions that this represents liberty. “People all too often are deceived by freedom,” he says.

Professing satisfaction at what he has attained, he will not countenance regret. Yet the sorrow in his eyes tells a different story, one in which there is a real sense of loss for a culture and an identity as an ape in the wild.

This is an engrossing hour-long discourse on the meaning of captivity, freedom, migration and whether assimilating into a host culture can be an escape or merely a different type of shackle.

Kathryn Hunter is extraordinary as the ape. Her physicality and flexibility are breathtaking as she lumbers across the stage in a shabby top hat and tails, playfully interacting with her audience. Astonishment and fascination at her performance slowly give way to discomfort and sadness at the realisation that it is we, humanity, who stand accused.

Audiences across the world have reacted very differently to the play. In Australia, comparisons have been made with the plight of the Aboriginal people, while in New York a Jewish audience believed that Kafka was talking about them. That’s hardly surprising, since Kafka’s Monkey speaks to a world that turns its back on desperate people who risk their lives in overcrowded, leaky boats merely to swap poverty and war for hostility and incarceration in inhumane prison camps. In making us reflect on those parallels, Hunter’s wonderfully humane performance is a must-see. 

Runs until June 27, box office: homemcr.org