GMU Gives Life To Kafka's Surreal World

David Drake plays the trapped Joseph K. and Jennica Nishida is Leni in George Mason University's production of Franz Kafka's "The Trial," which continues through Sunday. (Evan Cantwell)

Is post-9/11 America becoming Kafkaesque? The question hangs over "The Trial," an adaptation of Franz Kafka's powerfully disturbing novel now on stage at George Mason University's TheaterSpace.

The Prague-born author wrote the book -- considered by many critics as one of the great novels of the last century -- in 1914, but it was not published until 1925, after his death. For this production, The GMU Players have chosen a dramatization that writer André Gide and actor Jean-Louis Barrault created after World War II. But even in this different time and place, perhaps especially in this time and place, "The Trial" remains an unsettling, startling warning against an arbitrary government.

Earlier generations of Americans could enjoy "The Trial" as compelling fiction, pondering its themes of bureaucratic madness as a common citizen faces the charge of an unnamed crime brought against him by the state and wanders through a never-ending, amorphous process. But to Americans in 2005, Kafka's world suddenly has pointed relevance, as people have been rounded up and tossed into jail indefinitely without being charged with a crime.

The relation to contemporary events is so vivid that director Ken Elston has not had to embellish the presentation with contemporary references or symbolism; the vaguely Eastern European setting and early 20th-century ambiance work well. Banker Joseph K. (played by David Drake) finds himself arrested and accused of a crime he did not commit. The government will not tell him the nature of the alleged misdeed, and he is left to cope with being labeled a suspect, undergoing frustrating questioning and watching helplessly as the legal system he had trusted to be fair and rational spins in circles, getting no closer to resolving his case, and destroys his life in the process.

Elston and designer Christian Hershey, aided immeasurably by the mounting dread and tension evoked by Thomas Terlecki's omnipresent sound design, have created a surreal world, a disjointed jumble of buildings and rooms in which lives are lived under watching eyes and business is conducted in a dehumanizing minuet of synchronized movement, the pinnacle of which is the human cuckoos that appear with the chimes of a massive clock. Kafka's world is a mechanism, not quite a machine, in which interchangeable humans, with faces obscured by masks, are but cogs. An unrelenting "tick, tick, tick" underlies all, occasionally augmented by what sounds like a pounding human heart, coordinating the mechanism and counting away the time being lost to Joseph K. as he loses control of his life.

The atmosphere is rich and absorbing, buttressed by Drake's nuanced performance as a mundane, rather colorless man facing extraordinary circumstances. Drake nimbly negotiates his character's descent through several psychological stages as his faith in the system erodes, replaced by creeping anxiety and a mounting estrangement from the world around him.

However, Elston has chosen overt theatricality for the 17 other speaking roles and numerous ensemble parts, with the actors scuttling about in sharp-angled poses and exaggerating their vocal delivery to cartoon-like levels. This unfortunate distraction dilutes the larger message by calling attention directly to performance over theme. That's particularly grating with Jay Saunders's hammy work in a number of featured roles. Elston also needs to work on W. Steve Fillmore's diction, which frequently renders him incomprehensible in important parts. More successful is Jennica Nishida, finding the perfect balance of surreal and gritty tones as disciplinarian temptress Leni.

Still, there's spectacle for the eye and much that provokes thought here, so the verdict for "The Trial" is qualified approval.

"The Trial" continues through Sunday. Showtimes are 8 p.m. today, Friday and Saturday, with 2 p.m. matinees Saturday and Sunday. The play is at the George Mason University Center for the Arts, Braddock Road and Route 123. For information and tickets, visit www.gmu.edu/departments/theatre/performances or call 703-993-1120.