The Trial review, Young Vic

It is always a privilege to watch Rory Kinnear on stage and his tour-de-force performance as Josef K in Richard Jones' very physical production of Kafka's The Trial is magnificent. The Young Vic is set up like a courtroom with the audience as jury sitting on straight backed benches. Kinnear dominates the central stage for nearly two hours and both he and the  brilliant travelator set, which delivers room settings in elegant and continuous sweeps, are in constant motion. Quite what we're to take from it, however, is a conundrum.

This is, of course, the intention. Not having read The Trial my young companion and I came to Nick Gill's stage adaptation with no knowledge of the story. It is this: on Josef K's 35th birthday there's a knock on the door and he discovers he is on trial. He does not know what for, but he's already been found guilty. He enters a series of rooms in which odd things happen. Clerks with big yellow files steal his clothes and then get flogged, three spooks in gaberdines keep appearing at the door, there are girls he loves and girls who want him to love them, and all the time he can feel the world looking in and judging him.

Kinnear's Josef is controlled and quite zen.  Even when dealing with tricksy lawyers or reduced to running across the stage on all fours, he does so with intelligent incomprehension, slowly filling with dread rather than terror. Small memories from his early life come back to him and he questions his responses at the time. The suggestion it seemed to me,  is that it is his life (and by association, ours) that is being tried. He is being held accountable for the small slights, the dramas, the loss, and the dashed expectations we often manage by forgetting them. The ending reinforces that sense.

In conclusion: Lovers of existential discourse will enjoy The Trial. Kinnear is brilliant and there is some beautiful writing. The two of us, however, flagged quite quickly. It was hot inside the theatre - Kinnear was literally dripping at times - and the play is serious and relentless to the point where we felt alienated. Maybe we've been watching too much Judge Judy.

References
The Trial, Tickets


Young Vic Theatre, The Cut, London SE1 8LZ    Run ends 22 August