Il processo di Joseph K
(The trial of Joseph K)
from Franz Kafka
Characters
Joseph K
Inspector
Investigating Magistrate
Accused
Counselor
Titorelli
The other JK
Mrs Grubach
Miss Bürstner
Miss Montag
Washerwoman
Leni
Willem
Berthold
Franz
Usher
Assistant Director
Uncle
Manufacturer
Block
   
 

Act 1, Scene 1
  Joseph (about to move a bedside table, puts it down again) Oh, God!
  Miss Bürstner (enters) Who are you? What's going on here?
  Joseph
Joseph K, miss, I sleep in the room next door.
  Miss B
Oh yes, mister K, I recognize you.
What are you doing in my room?
  Joseph
I can explain everything.
  Miss B
I was almost frightened by you!
  Joseph
I'm so sorry. Let me explain, then.
(he picks the bedside table up again and moves it)
  Miss B
My bedside table! I beg your pardon!
  Joseph
I'm not the one who moved it. Or, rather, yes. It was because of me, but against my will. See, I was here, and there was the inspector, and then the others. Do you understand?
  Miss B
Of course not.
  Joseph
Well, I've been arrested.
  Miss B
And who, may I ask, has arrested you?
  Joseph
Joseph K, they called, as if to wake me up.
  Miss B
Don't shout like that, please! Sit down. Let's start from the beginning. For now, all I know is that you have been brought to trial.
  Joseph
A trial, yes, it must be that, there were two men dressed in black, I also had a black suit, it was necessary, you know, to go there, into the next room...

Apart from a few critical exercises • or formative experiences, I am not tied to prose theatre in a traditional sense: the Trial however, is one of these.
I prefer to build the text in function of other elements, principally music, but also the figure, so they may live in a tight relationship with the words.

It was on the stage of the Salone Pier Lombardo, now Teatro Franco Parenti, that I was able to realize
a form of theatre in which
I could combine in equal measure literary fragments, music, visual and gestural allusions.

Dalla sabbia dal Tempo
Dybbuk

To the same Theatre I associate other minor
but all the same significant creative moments.

Trieste, viaggio nell'inconscio Variété

     
This stage version of Franz Kafka’s novel was intended
for actor Franco Parenti in a “multiple” interpretation (six roles),
who had wanted it and appreciated it.
Dramaturgy with a target, therefore,
faithful to the linear structure of the story,
even through a very personal point of view.

Andrée Shammah's production,
tragically deprived of its main actor,
included only a few scenes from the original dramaturgy.
A future realization is not ruled out, though.