Kafka Esquire (excerpt)

Synopsis:

This is the sort of play Kafka himself would’ve written, had he been so disposed.

Our hero (?anti-hero, ?non-hero, ?cipher) is Mr Kafka himself who, for his many sins, finds himself on trial.

A literary trial.  With a Prosecutor as dogged and as merciless as the man who put Oscar Wilde behind bars.

Was Kafka a genius?

Was he an impoverished cold-water-garret-dweller who remained unrecognized in his own time?

Was he treated abominably by his father?

Was he, in today’s parlance, a loser when it came to women?

Does the play either posit or answer any of these questions?

Do we find out any more about Kafka by play’s end than we did at the beginning?

Or is it all an intellectual game.

Character Breakdown:

FRANZ KAFKA

PROSECUTOR (female)

Running-time: 70 minutes.

Production History: Not yet produced.

Excerpt available for download for free.