"The Trial"

"It's often safer to be in chains than to be free."*

Last evening, I attended the final performance of a play that my son, Richard, has been involved with all week. He became involved at the last moment, about a week ago, when the Department Head asked if he would help. Actual work on the play began in December but Richard was already involved with "The Hound of the Baskervilles".

Richard is listed in the program as a member of the Production Staff: "Lightboard Operator." Rehearsals were last weekend; previews were early in the week (one cancelled by snow), and the show (formally) was Wednesday through Saturday.

Don't ask me what this play, "The Trial", was about. I knew it was based on the Franz Kafka book. Unfortunately, the program did not contain a summary and I never read the book nor did I prepare for the play by doing any research. The school calendar included a short description, pinched from the Wikipedia entry (see Link below): The Trial was written by Kafka in 1914 through 1915, but not published until 1925. One of his best-known works, it tells the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed to neither him nor the reader.

The play lasted approximately two (2) hours and did not have an intermission. It seemed like a bad dream to me (I mean the "plot"; the production was interesting and the performances were generally passionate). Overall, the tone was somber and depressing (like many plays). At the conclusion, the audience politely clapped their appreciation for the performance. However, there were no cast and crew appreciations/thanks as is typical for a final show.

The play was "adapted" by a part-time member of the school's English department and directed by a long-time faculty member (who had a small acting role as the Priest).

There are several reasons why I am glad that I saw this play. I would not have gone except for my son's involvement. However, it was an opportunity to experience a culturally significant piece of literature. Writing this post helped me to learn something about Kafka and "The Trial" of which I previously knew almost nothing. Hopefully, it will inspire at least some of those involved and some of the audience to ponder about the meaning of the play and perhaps its connection to the political state of our society today.

* This unattributed quote was printed on the cover of the program. Apparently it is a from the book, somewhere in Chapter 8. However, the exact words will depend on the translation since the original was in German. I did not try to verify this. On the other hand, it brought to my mind, Eric Fromm's book, Escape from Freedom (one of my favorite books).

Links:
http://ricketwrite.blogspot.com/2013_12_23_archive.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trial
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_Freedom