Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord
14th September - 4th October 2010
Monday- Saturday 9pm, Saturday 3.30pm, 50 minutes duration
14-28 euros
In English with French subtitles
****
In Colin Teevan's excellent adaptation of Kafka's allegoric short story 'A Report to an Academy', Kathryn Hunter plays an ape who has achieved the ultimate evolutionary feat; to ensure his survival at the hands of cruel human captors, Red Peter has become a human himself. An all-drinking, all-smoking, all-talking, even all-lecturing, assimilated member of human civilisation. Over 50 minutes, Red Peter presents to the academy the story of his life, from his infancy amongst fellow apes on the Golden Coast, through his capture, anthropomorphosis and finally to his squalid, lonely existence as a heavy-drinking variety performer on the very bottom wrung of the social ladder. Following a run at the Young Vic Theatre in London, where it received mixed critical reviews but overall commercial success, Walter Meierjohann’s original english-language production of Kafka's Monkey is shown at the spectacular Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord this month.In London, Hunter's performance drew heavily on the intimacy provided by the Young Vic's sparse Maria Stage. With an audience of just 150, seated on temporary benches facing bare studio space, the former ape hunted for tics in the hair of those sitting in the front row, offered bananas to his spectators. As in Will Self's satirical novel 'Great Apes', the intimacy and warmth of simian group grooming was emphasised in contrast to the physical isolation of humans, the supposedly advanced civilisation. The grand four-tierd auditorium of the Bouffes du Nord creates quite a different atmosphere and, to the benefit of the drama, Hunter's performance throughout is tempered by the physicality of the more theatrically conventional staging. The former ape's crumpled and besuited body, his posture halfway between that of an ape and a man, seems tiny upon the thrust stage, immersed in the great round sea of audience. The pressure to perform a predefined role for an expectant audience is palpable, almost gladatorial, in the claustrophic arena-like space; the premise of the play may be the presentation of an academic report but the atmosphere is more akin to the circus.
Kathryn Hunter's performance is remarkable, a true joy to watch. Nervous and fidgetty, and with an arsenal of impressively honed monkey mannerisms, Hunter plays Peter as truely pathetic in his desperate endeavour to ingratiate himself, to assimilate, and to find his place in a companion- and peer-less society. Yet Peter is as much a human as he is a monkey, and in Teevan's adaptation we recognise the familiar themes and fears of Kafka's work; persecution, isolaton and loneliness born of the desire for conformity and uniformity, whether it be one's own or society's at large. The ability to "adapt" perfectly, and at will, to one's surroundings is shown to be both a myth and a dangerous desire to harbour; Peter now occupies a lonely no-man's, and no-monkey's, land between two societies that equally repel and reject him.
A truly excellent adaptation of an important and oft-neglected component of Kafka's canon, which provides the material for an equally excellent performance of theatrical versatility from Kathryn Hunter.
This will be the Bouffes' final English-language production this season, although forthcoming operas such as The Magic Flute (from 9 November, directed by the theatre's previous long-running artistic director Peter Brook), The Second Woman (from 26 April) and Gertrude Stein's avant-garde libretto Doctor Faustus Lights The Lights (from 17 May) may also be of interest to audience members who only speak English.
