The Trial

Photo: Krafft Angerer
by Franz Kafka
Theatre
In German
Depot 1
Premiere:
January 27, 2023
Trailer
dates & tickets
https://www.schauspiel.koeln Schauspiel Köln Schanzenstraße 6-20, 51063 Köln
Sat 06 Apr 19.30 - 21.20
https://www.schauspiel.koeln Schauspiel Köln Schanzenstraße 6-20, 51063 Köln
Thu 25 Apr 19.30 - 21.20
https://www.schauspiel.koeln Schauspiel Köln Schanzenstraße 6-20, 51063 Köln
Wed 08 May 19.30 - 21.20
“Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.” Franz Kafka’s character Josef K. is profoundly confused by this situation but is allowed to continue his life as before. K. goes to work, knowing however that he is an inmate. He meets his lover; he harbors the hunch that a trial is in store for him. Precisely how the trial will go, what he’ll be accused of, the dates he has to appear in court – all of this remains a mystery to K. He plunges ever deeper into the world of the law and the courts. His servants and employees increasingly find their way into his reality. In the end he is served his verdict, with no disclosure of reasoning, and it is enforced. Whether or not Josef K. was guilty and the offense he was guilty of go unmentioned.

Franz Kafka’s third, unfinished, posthumously published novel has been variously interpreted as biographical, politically visionary, even humorous. The surreal bureaucratic labyrinth that closes in on the main character and in which Josef K. loses himself – in fact, without seriously doubting the charges against him – gives director Pinar Karabulut and her team plenty of material to get to the bottom of issues of power and powerlessness, guilt and innocence.
direction: Pınar Karabulut
stage: Michela Flück
costume: Teresa Vergho
Amon Ritz · Michael Frank
dramaturgy: Sarah Lorenz