Ulrike Garde
Playing with the Apparatus: Franz Kafka’s ‘In the Penal Colony’ and Barrie Kosky’s Interpretation for the Melbourne International Arts Festival
In his theatrical production The Lost Breath Barrie Kosky establishes a close connection to Franz Kafka’s ‘In the Penal Colony’. The main focus of this chapter is on the playful approach towards the staging of unstable meanings which the two texts have in common. The analysis applies Jac- ques Derrida’s concept of différance to the texts and focuses on the apparatus in order to reveal theatricality as the dynamic pattern that underlies their making and re-making of meaning. It is uncovered which elements of play and différance are inherent in Kafka’s text and how Kosky transfers them to the stage. Ultimately, the performance serves as an illustration of how Kafka’s ‘playing’ with meaning and the corresponding theatricality of making meaning can be success- fully transported to the stage.
In 2003, Barrie Kosky staged The Lost Breath (Der Verlorne Atem) as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival. This multi-framed and multi-layer- ed performance combined three stories by Franz Kafka, ‘In the Penal Colony’ (In der Strafkolonie), ‘Metamorphosis’ (Die Verwandlung) and ‘A Hunger Artist’ (Ein Hungerkünstler) with the dramatisation of aspects of the life of Harry Houdini and a performance of Schumann’s song cycle, ‘Dichterliebe’. It was the first part of this performance which aroused particular interest both in Australian critics and their colleagues who had seen the initial season of the show at the Schauspielhaus in Vienna.1 An analysis of Kafka’s text and Kosky’s performance will demonstrate that Kosky’s project was largely successful because of its emphasis on ‘play’ and because it used and developed elements of ‘play’ already present in Kaf- ka’s text. Accordingly, the following analysis will fall into two parts, the first
1 Cf., for example, Helen Thomson, Age, 16 October 2003; Thuy On, Australian, 16 October 2003 and, in Germany, Wolfgang Kralicek, Theater heute (May 2003). Kosky has been co- artistic director of the Schauspielhaus since 2001. 432 Ulrike Garde focussing on ‘In the Penal Colony’,2 examining which elements of ‘play’ are present in Kafka’s story, and the second on The Lost Breath,3 analysing which of these elements Kosky has used and developed for the first part of his performance. Against the background of the great number of interpreta- tions which have already been proposed for Kafka’s work and the endeavour to tease out the emphasis on ‘play’ in this particular analysis, the interpreta- tion will be necessarily provisional and restricted, ‘in recognition of the inter- ventionist and theoretically endless nature of the discourse [on Kafka’s and Kosky’s texts], the place of contexts and the provisional aspect of all find- ings’.4 As far as ‘play’ is concerned, the analysis will take into account a broad range of its meanings. Definitions in dictionaries refer to a ‘dramatic compo- sition or piece’ while emphasising the aspects of creativity, freedom and fun.5 Accordingly, Brian Edwards, in his Theories of Play and Postmodern Fiction, distinguishes between ‘play’ and ‘game’, defing the latter as ‘finite and rule- governed’.6 The etymology of the German word Spiel also stresses the as- sociation with dance and movement,7 while the etymology of the French jeu points to the play with words.8 When applying the concept of ‘play’ to Kafka’s and Kosky’s texts, these German and French etymological connota- tions relate to Derrida’s concept of différance. In their own ways, the first parts of The Penal Colony and The Lost Breath presuppose and explore a notion of language and meaning in which the signifier and the signified no
2 For Kafka’s text, see ‘In der Strafkolonie’, in Drucke zu Lebzeiten, ed. by Wolf Kittler, Hans-Gerd Koch and G. Neumann (Frankfurt/Main: Fischer, 1994), pp. 203-48. All German quotations are from this edition. The English translations referred to in this chapter are by Willa and Edwin Muir, in The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony and Other Stories (New York: Shocken Books, 1995), pp. 191-227, and by Ian Johnston, to be found at