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Amerika

nytheatre.com review by David Reinwald
August 15, 2005

Amerika is a new play directed by Alexander Poe and Joseph Varca, based on Franz Kafka’s first and unfinished novel of the same title written in 1913. The play, presented by The Redux Theatre Company, begins as if it is a biographical sketch of the start of Kafka’s writing career. But it soon takes a wild turn, leaving any thoughts of that original concept behind. As the plot moves forward, the character Kafka (Ben Correale) is found swimming alongside his own penned characters and becomes subordinate to them and their every whim. His friends and family reappear in this quasi-dream sequence, now renamed as new characters in an almost Wizard of Oz-like scenario that continues for the rest of the play. Many of the actors surface again and again, each time with a new identity. The characters wage a battle against Kafka to control and dominate the destiny of his novel.For the Kafka-“uninitiated” such as myself, this play is hard to understand. It seems as if writer/co-director Alexander Poe is trying to place attention on the eccentric features of the many characters in Kafka’s novel. While Correale plays Kafka believably, the character remains locked in a state of unbroken defenselessness. Meanwhile, as the character Grubach (Anthony Nelson) vies for control of the story, he stretches the play into moments of farce that seem to stray away from its original tone. Zoltan (Noah Bean) is yet another character thrown into the mix. He acts as a semi-paternal figure to Kafka, but he has several tricks up his sleeve. Bean has some shining moments early on, but later falls susceptible to the pitfalls of the writing. Nevertheless, these actors and the rest of the cast surely work hard with what they have.One of the show’s redeeming qualities is its scenery, which adds a nice touch to the background. Set and lighting designer Robert Roberts has combined silhouette projections with actors in-shadow projected onto framed canvasses which change to fit the altering locations of Kafka’s journey.