MEDIATHEK

The Trial - "Someone must have been spreading lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong, he was arrested one morning..." Despite the arrest, which takes place on his thirtieth birthday, the clerk Joseph K. is allowed to move about freely. He tries in vain to find out what he's is accused of and how he can put things right. However, the office of the court, which sits in some sort of attic, appears out of reach, and the law itself is unitelligible. The trial ends with a death sentence, and Joseph K. submits to the mysterious verdict without ever finding out what he did. Two polite court officials lead him out and on the day of his thirty-first birthday execute him 'like a dog'. The Trial is one of the most accurate parables of existence. The present day is full of phenomena testifying to the timeless metaphorical quality of this slim story: on one hand the objective tracking of personal 'data' from various areas of life, on the other the ever-stronger subjective feeling of being 'persecuted and oppressed' by an outside world that is gradually ceasing to respect the intimate sphere of the individual, thus taking from people the last remnants of their inner secrets.

Reviews:
"Director Dušan David Pařízek and his protagonist Martin Finger demonstrate in their stage adoptation of Kafka's novel, both menacingly and with magical lightness, how language can lead to the gallows, how K. is stretched out between words and feelings of guilt, how his verbal fetters in his dialogues with the guards, torturers and lawyers tighten round him until they finally strangle his life entirely... The directness of the speeches and the production's concentration on actors uniformly dressed in dark suits makes Pařízek's Trial the climax of the festival programme.
(by Klaus Witzeling, Hamburger Abendblatt, after the performance as part of the Projektion Europe festival)

"In demonstrating his internal states of mind, Martin Finger (...) modulates his voice in a virtuoso way. Everything comes to a climax (...) in the cathedral scene, and in the parable about the doorman, when internal doubts and the final verdict on himself ends in a tragicomic surreal, or Dadaist, furore. The actual execution is like a grotesque Pythonesque clip, comparable to the legendary musical ending of the Life of Brian..."
(by Vladimír Just, Literární noviny)

"The fewer the actions and effects in the production, the more it penetrates to the depths, purging the text of everything that is superfluous to this aim. It is, of course, a very individual analysis, but Kafka is well suited by this tendency to individualism."
(by Jana Paterová, Lidové noviny)

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16th International Festival Theatre Pilsen Booklet (Printed Edition)