METAMORPHOSIS
Werner Krieglstein, whose adaptation of Metamorphosis is currently running at the Project, fundamentally fails to tell Kafka’s story–or any story, for that matter. His play–set in Gregor’s bedroom, behind a huge white scrim and illuminated by black light–takes several episodes from Kafka’s tale and runs them one after another. But there is little attention to connecting these episodes. I finished reading the story an hour before going to the theater, and I was still lost. Without a comprehensible narrative, this play simply doesn’t make sense.
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Turbulent Mirror Productions is made up entirely of members of Werner Krieglstein’s immediate family, which makes the lack of genuine emotions all the more troubling. Werner Krieglstein seems to have simply relegated everyone to subordinate positions in his grand spectacle. As a result, the piece comes across as arrogant. This, coupled with a theater so hot that nuclear fusion seemed imminent, made for quite an unpleasant evening.
