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New Century Theatre Company: Trial Blazers
This top local fringe theatre company plans an innovative staging of a Kafka classic.
By Seattle Mag April 2, 2013
This article originally appeared in the April 2013 issue of Seattle magazine.
Franz Kafka was a master at crafting absurd yet convincing scenarios (perhaps most famously in his man-turns-cockroach story, The Metamorphosis) and capturing the particularly human feeling of existential dread. You might have experienced a similarly surreal sense of displacement if you ever had the misfortune of being an immigrant detained for days or weeks at Seattle’s hulking INS building.
Closed in 2004, the International District location that once processed paperwork for new citizens—and deported countless others—has since been turned into Inscape, a buzzing arts enclave. It’s the perfect location for New Century Theatre Company’s staging of Kafka’s The Trial, which follows the tribulations of Josef K., subjected to an out-of-the-blue arrest and even more mystifying legal maze.
New Century has exciting ideas for the production that will connect Kafka’s imaginary world to the history of the building. Audience members may be categorized and “processed” as they enter, and scenes will be set in surprising places. Starring veteran Seattle actors Darragh Keenan, Amy Thone, Michael Patten and MJ Sieber, The Trial may have you thinking that becoming a cockroach isn’t the worst that could happen.
4/5–4/28. Times and prices TBA. Satori Lab at Inscape, 815 Seattle Blvd. S; wearenctc.org
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