Die Verwandlung

In the organizer's words:

"When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin." Franz Kafka's classic begins with this radical statement. Together with Lithuanian theater maker Kamilė Gudmonaitė, seven players between the ages of 22 and 68 explore Kafka's story "The Metamorphosis". At the heart of this dialogical exploration is the experience of alienation that arises when one's own perception of the body does not correspond to external reality - when the body is perceived as monstrous or inappropriate.

The production questions how the body is perceived and shaped in today's society. It has long since ceased to be a given fate and has become a project: Through training, surgical interventions or other transformative processes, it can be shaped and changed according to individual ideas. And yet the human body always remains at the mercy of the body - its biological changes, its vulnerability and the attributions of others.

The production approaches Kafka's work from a contemporary perspective that understands the body as the scene of a field of tension between old constraints and new scope. The body is examined not only as a biological, but also as a social and cultural category - a place where identity and foreignness are negotiated at the same time. Kamilė Gudmonaitė is a member of the management team of the Lithuanian National Theater in Vilnius and is considered one of the most exciting directors of her generation. She has also made a name for herself internationally with works that deal with health, gender and generational conflicts. In her first production at the D'haus, she combines Kafka's world literature with the physical stories of the players.