12 April – 1 May 2005
Josephine, The Singer
based on Franz Kafka short story
After a recent successful run at the Greenwich
Playhouse, when they opened London’s Strindberg
Season last February,
("Stone Crabs superb revival successfully
draws you back to a time when heredity was everything."
– Aneka Dove, New York Times)
StoneCrabs presents the world premiere of the
stage version of Josephine, The Singer by Franz
Kafka. |
|
A dense Kafkaesque atmosphere is beautifully
drawn by StoneCrabs who explore with strength and
passion the contour of Kafka’s mind.
Welcome
to Café Arco. There, we encounter Josephine,
a woman whose ordinary and charmless singing
creates a sensation. Not so much for her singing
but rather because Josephine knows how to create
an enchanting atmosphere. Josephine’s
fame appears to be an escape from a hopelessly
laborious life yet even her charisma will not
free her from the daily grind.
When her people refuse to exempt her from work,
Josephine becomes silent. |
|
But who is the real Josephine? 6 Performers
from different countries (Brazil, Italy, Japan, England
and Spain) join efforts to find Josephine's voice
and identity. They provoke thoughts on the place of
art and artists as individuals in society, questioning
the fragile construction of our identities and how
we are pulled to pieces by our own social emptiness.
Belonging to no school, Franz Kafka
has inspired and continues to inspire artists, philosophers,
writers and readers. Franz Kafka has become synonymous
with absurdity and the dark side of modernity.
The geographical position of Kafka's
birthplace as well as his education, mirrors wider
complexities, a permanent pulling between east and
west. Kafka was raised in Jewish culture, the German
language was his mother tongue yet the Czech language
stood closer to his heart. Kafka internalised Prague’s
identities and divisions as well as the social and
political turmoil of the fin de siècle.
The performance reflects these tensions
as well as Kafka’s own tortured emotional life.
But it is Kafka’s ability to transform the chaos
of his inner life into language and at the same time
to portray the terror facing the individual in a cold
and indifferent world that makes his works still alive
for us today.
StoneCrabs’
production will drag you to the heart of Kafka’s
world providing you with an evening of entertainment
that will be thought provoking as well as deeply
absurd and sardonic. |
|
Josephine,
The Singer
By Franz Kafka
Produced by StoneCrabs, Directed by Franko Figueiredo
Devised and Performed by Tereza Araujo, Lisa Benson,
Daniela Garcia Cacilda, Elisa Galo Rosso, Chiara de
Palo and Akiko Sato.
Set Design by Richard Andrzejewski, Costume Design
by Lu Firth & James Randall, Production Management
by Jas Sandalli & Jas Suraj, Marketing, PR &
Research by Coraline Pelloquin, Photography by Elena
Machado.
@ The Diorama
34 Osnaburgh Street, LONDON, NW1 3ND
CLICK
HERE TO SEE THE STREET MAP
BOX OFFICE 020 8694 6472 / 07903 244 298
12 April – 1 May 2005
Tuesdays to Saturdays 8pm
Sundays 4pm
Preview nights: 12 & 13
April (2 Tickets for the price of 1)*
Opening night: 14 April
Tickets: £12 / £8 (conc.)
More information: josephine@stonecrabs.co.uk
Book with lastminute.com
and get £2 off your Theatre Ticket*
Press on our last production, Miss Julie
by Strindberg.
"The
intimacy of the studio theatre and sparse set successfully
act to engage the audience with the narrative. Marry
that with powerful performances and inspired direction
and this fatalistic tragedy is a viewing delight"
- Anneka Dove, New York Times
"Down to the very last detail; the entire production
is a delight to behold" - Emma Whitelaw, Indielondon
"StoneCrabs have brought an intense and beautifully
acted production of Strindberg's best-known play,
Miss Julie, to the Greenwich Playhouse...beautiful
and dramatic, naturally" - Roy Atterbury, Kentish
Times
"At a time when theatre is increasingly attempting
to provide excessive spectacle at a faster pace, StoneCrabs'
production of Miss Julie goes refreshingly against
the grain"
Patrick Hayes, Culture Wars
"StoneCrabs have been steadily acquiring a fine
reputation for themselves under director Franko Figueiredo...who
in this own adaptation, gives us some striking naturalistic
detail and imagery" - Carole Woddis, Herald
"The tale of passion across the class-lines is
beautifully drawn, all three performances are competent
and the socio-economic arguments clearly portrayed."
-
Peggy Leader, What's On.
