I’m OK, You’re Josef K.
Something in my personal zeitgeist has declared this the
year of Puppets Having Sex.
A few weeks ago, there was Miss Piggie-style
cavorting in Avenue Q. Shortly after that, I finally caught up with Trey
Parker and Matt Stone’s Team America on DVD (think marionettes doing
R-rated James Bond). And now, there’s the Milwaukee
Mask & Puppet Theatre’s The Ballad of Josef K., an adaptation of
Franz Kafka’s The Trial.
Kafka, of course, is a much more serious affair. The production, directed by
First Stage Children’s Theatre’s Rob Goodman, captures all the absurd horror of
the novel. Dean Holzman’s set is a potent evocation of the maze of hallways and
hidden rooms evoked there. The music, written and played live by the
Minneapolis band Thunder in the Valley, has just the right blend of country
music’s dark heart and Kurt Weill’s slinky sexuality. John Schneider’s script
tells the story with efficient dispatch and ratchets up the sex and violence to
suit contemporary mores.
There are no overt story adjustments to refer to Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo,
but there needn’t be. It’s all too clear why this is a story for our time.
Samson’s characters, mostly human-scale bunraku puppets that are
manipulated by black-clad puppeteers, express both the power and powerlessness
demanded by the story. The judge is 15 feet of flowing
robes topped with the
face of a graying Southern gentleman whose single sleepy eye suggests he likes
his bourbon. The bank employees are gleefully suburban bland. And Josef K.
himself bears a striking resemblance to his creator, Franz K.
By turns harrowing, ludicrous and tender, Josef K. is certainly one
of the most original pieces of theater in recent memory. It deserves much
bigger audiences than the Vogel Hall crowd last Saturday. Let’s hope the word
gets out.