A True 'metamorphosis': 'Kafka Dances' explores

the writer's foray into Judaism and the Jewish

love of his life.
Greenberg, Melinda . Baltimore Jewish Times ; Baltimore  Vol. 237, Iss. 8,  (Oct 24, 1997): 94.

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ABSTRACT (ABSTRACT)
A True `Metamorphosis': `Kafka Dances' explores the writer's foray into Judaism and the Jewish love of his life.
"You see, up to now," he says, "I've lived with the paradox of being a writer who can't write, a Jew who can't believe,
and, worst of all, a human being who can't live."
In Mr. [Brian Klaas]' childhood home in Los Gatos, Calif., near San Francisco, the family did not practice Judaism.
Mr. Klaas attended a Catholic boys' high school. This caused a rift between his mother and her parents. He did not
learn until years after his grandfather's death that they shared an interest in theater.

FULL TEXT
A True `Metamorphosis': `Kafka Dances' explores the writer's foray into Judaism and the Jewish love of his life.
In 1912, just as his literary career was beginning to unfold, Franz Kafka discovered two important truths about
himself. First, the author of such classics as "The Metamorphosis" and "The Trial" learned that inside of him beat
the heart of a proud Jew who, despite his family's rejection of its heritage, longed to reconnect with Judaism. And
although he lived a dark and passionless life, Kafka longed to feel love, laugh aloud and to dance.
Australian playwright Timothy Daly captures this time of inner turmoil and family discord in his play "Kafka
Dances." The play moves from Kafka's real life with his family and fiancee, Felice Bauer, to the dreams he "creates"
after spending hours every night watching a Yiddish theater troupe performing in his native Prague. (During this
time, many Yiddish theater companies formed in Eastern Europe and performed at various halls and cafes.)
It was Kafka's internal conflict that intrigued Brian Klaas, artistic director of Baltimore's Axis Theatre, when he first
read the play last year. The play, which was first performed in Sydney, Australia, in July of 1993, makes its
American premiere at Axis through Nov. 23.
"Kafka was not connected with Jewish life," said Mr. Klaas, the son of a Jewish mother and an Episcopalian father.
"The Yiddish theater offered him a doorway into himself and gave him a whole new understanding of his Jewish
heritage. It was regarded as something to be ashamed of in his family, and suddenly he finds its power and
prowess and finds a sense of himself with it."
The play's original director, Ros Horin, wrote that Kafka "saw in the performances of these clumsy vaudevillians a
sense of Yiddishness, an essence that was purely and un-self-consciously Jewish, and which affected him deeply."

Following this time of discovery, Kafka began studying Jewish customs and literature and Hebrew, which he
continued until his death in 1924. He and Felice even spoke of traveling to Palestine together. They broke off their
engagement in 1914.
Three years later, he contracted tuberculosis and spent the last seven years of his life in and out of sanitoria. All of
his writings were published posthumously by a friend who had promised to burn the work upon Kafka's death.
In the play, Kafka's relationship with Felice, an office worker based in Berlin, shows him a side of life he has long
missed. As she tries to teach the stiff and formal Franz how to dance, and lose himself in music, he laments his
inability to truly enjoy life.

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"You see, up to now," he says, "I've lived with the paradox of being a writer who can't write, a Jew who can't believe,
and, worst of all, a human being who can't live."
Ultimately, their differences prove too great; he cannot change enough to make their relationship successful.
The dramatic device of shifting between a real world and a dream world, while powerful, is a challenge to the
director who uses the same actors to represent two completely disparate atmospheres. It was one that Joe Brady,
the show's director, welcomed.
"It's a very adventurous and theatrical production. The lighting changes when the Yiddish theater comes into
Kafka's home," said Mr. Brady, who also teaches principles of acting at Essex Community College. "The characters
come out in a very presentational and stylized manner. They come out like cockroaches. The challenge is to get
the right style."
Mr. Brady, 32, studied films of Yiddish theater from the mid-20th century, concentrating on the mannerisms used
by the actors.
"Their gestures were very specific," he said. "There was meaning within a meaning."
For Mr. Klaas, 28, the play's meaning also touched a nerve about his own sense of Jewish heritage and his
interaction with his family. His mother, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, was raised in an observant home in
South Africa. She was one of the first women to have a bat mitzvah in South Africa.
But in Mr. Klaas' childhood home in Los Gatos, Calif., near San Francisco, the family did not practice Judaism. Mr.
Klaas attended a Catholic boys' high school. This caused a rift between his mother and her parents. He did not
learn until years after his grandfather's death that they shared an interest in theater.
"The rift over religion kept a part of my history separate from me," said Mr. Klaas, who works by day as a computer
programmer and lives in Owings Mills. "I am reclaiming that part of my life now and learning that it's OK to be a
Jew in history and culture and allow that to infuse the rest of my life. I reconnect to my Judaism a lot through
theater."
One of last year's productions at Axis, "Kindertransport," also dealt with a Jew disconnected to her Jewish roots
reclaiming them later in life. "There is a real ability for revelation in theater," Mr. Klaas said. "That's a lot of the
reason why I do it."
And he believes the revelations experienced by Kafka will strike a universal chord with audiences who see the play.

"The play is about regret and loss on a certain level," Mr. Klaas said. "Regret is really one of the worst things a
person can experience. Kafka lets his own fears ruin his life, and that's truly sad. If there is a moral to this play, it's
live fully and honestly."
Photo (Actor Brian Klaas)

DETAILS

Subject: Entertainment; Fine arts; Theater

People: Klaas, Brian Kafka, Franz Daly, Timothy Horin, Ros

Ethnicity: Jewish

Publication title: Baltimore Jewish Times; Baltimore

Volume: 237

Issue: 8

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 Pages: 94

Number of pages: 0

Publication year: 1997

Publication date: Oct 24, 1997

Publisher: Baltimore Jewish Times

Place of publication: Baltimore

Country of publication: United States, Baltimore

Publication subject: Jewish, Religions And Theology--Judaic, Ethnic Interests

ISSN: 0005450X

CODEN: 32403.

Source type: Magazines

Language of publication: English

Document type: Performance review

Document feature: Photo

Accession number: SFLNSBJWT0198BJLR025000052

ProQuest document ID: 222822094

Document URL: https://search.proquest.com/docview/222822094?accountid=48928

Copyright: Copyright Baltimore Jewish Times Oct 24, 1997

Last updated: 2010-06-09

Database: ProQuest Central

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