Iconic Polish director Krystian Lupa’s theatrical adaptation of The Trial is a five-hour journey into absurdity that darkly echoes our current political realities.

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Indefinite Article

Alisa Zhulina on Krystian Lupa

Are we the arrested? And is Joseph K. innocent? He doesn’t know. And neither do we.

Get Into It

PROCES Krystian Lupa | trailer
Trailer for "The Trial"

Get Thee to the LIbrary

Recommended readings to accompany the Indefinite Article by Alisa Zhulina.

Minou Arjomand, Staged: Show Trials, Political Theater, and the Aesthetics of Judgement. Columbia University Press, 2018.

Evelyn Torton Beck, Kafka and the Yiddish Theater: Its Impact on His Work. University of Wisconsin Press, 1971.

Piotr Gruszczyński and Tom Sellar (eds), Krystian Lupa: In His Own Words. Theater 41.3 (2011).

Franz Kafka, The Trial. 1925. Translated and with a preface by Breon Mitchell. Schocken Books, 1998.

Magda Romanska, The Post-Traumatic Theatre of Grotowski and Kantor: History and Holocaust in ‘Akropolis’ and ‘Dead Class’. Anthem Press, 2012.

Read All About It

KaiChieh Tu for the Theatre Times | Feb 16, 2018

Krystian Lupa's "The Trial" at Divine Comedy Festival 2017

Lupa’s adaptation of The Trial… gains a specific meaning in the context of Polish theatre’s crisis: the increasing intervention of government and various forms of censorship under the conservative party.

Extra Credit

We’ve picked a book to complement each show in our season. We’ve got novels, short stories, essays, poetry, and memoir. Before opening night of each show (usually Fridays, but not always!), we’ll meet in the lobby for happy hour drinks and discussion. It’s an fun, informal way to find a new favorite book, meet people, and get your brain into gear for the show – even if you haven’t had a chance to read the book yet.

The Trial by Franz Kafka

“Someone must have been spreading lies about Josef K, for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one morning.”