K.

Franz Kafka made his literary breakthrough thanks to an Eastern Jewish theatre group, whose performances in the Yiddish language he enthusiastically attended in 1911 in the old town of Prague. Their energetic, comedic narrative style with strong expressive gestures demonstrably influenced Kafka’s writing and their mixture of song, dance and drama fascinated him. With this in mind, opera director Barrie Kosky will stage Kafka’s most famous novel "The Trial" and other texts, exploring Kafka’s Jewishness in German, Yiddish and Hebrew, all with German surtitles and – of course – with lots of music! For the gravely ill Kafka himself, this exploration only led, if not to redemption, then at least to some kind of consolation through his encounter with Dora Diamant in the final year before his death.
 
Barrie Kosky’s artistic work is marked by a continuous interest in giving the audience access to forgotten or lesser-known areas of Jewish culture. Once again pursuing this aim, the former artistic director of the Komische Oper Berlin will continue his collaboration with the Berliner Ensemble after his successful production of "The Threepenny Opera".