Kafka's Ape **** -TNT
Friday 27 March 2009 16:50 GMT
Kathryn Hunter goes ape in Colin Teevan’s adaptation of Kafka’s short story A Report to an Academy. Though not the first time that this versatile actress has played a member of the opposite sex, on this occasion she takes to the stage in top hat and tails with the mannerisms of a male monkey breaking through the humanised surface
So, addressing the audience directly, Red Peter relates how he was shot and captured on the Gold Coast, then transported to Europe in a cruelly cramped cage – interrupting his story to offer a banana and groom the hair of a front row spectator. He tells how (in the belief that his only chance of survival was to copy his captors) he learnt to behave like a human – spitting, scratching and drinking rum just like the sailors on board ship – before making the choice between life in the zoo or the music hall.
Hunter swings chimp-like from a wall, or bounds, hunched, across the stage, arms swinging, then fixes the audience with a penetrating, quizzical stare. It’s a remarkable solo performance which renders Red Peter’s story both funny and touching, a sad satire of assimilation which leaves him uneasily trapped in the no man’s land between simian and sapiens.
So, addressing the audience directly, Red Peter relates how he was shot and captured on the Gold Coast, then transported to Europe in a cruelly cramped cage – interrupting his story to offer a banana and groom the hair of a front row spectator. He tells how (in the belief that his only chance of survival was to copy his captors) he learnt to behave like a human – spitting, scratching and drinking rum just like the sailors on board ship – before making the choice between life in the zoo or the music hall.
Hunter swings chimp-like from a wall, or bounds, hunched, across the stage, arms swinging, then fixes the audience with a penetrating, quizzical stare. It’s a remarkable solo performance which renders Red Peter’s story both funny and touching, a sad satire of assimilation which leaves him uneasily trapped in the no man’s land between simian and sapiens.
Young Vic, The Cut, SE1 (0207 922 2922) Until 9th April (£17.50, £10 under 26)
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