NCTC Produces Kafka's THE TRIAL at INS Building, Now thru 4/28

The critically acclaimed New Century Theatre Company (NCTC) enters their fifth season by producing the world premiere of Kenneth Albers (Oregon Shakespeare Festival) recent adaptation of Franz Kafka's THE TRIAL. NCTC will take this story to new heights by presenting this powerful play inside Seattle's historic INS Building.

NCTC is currently converting one of the rooms where people were originally sworn in as citizens into an intimate 71 seat theatre. Audiences will see, and perhaps experience first-hand, the cold hard reality of being processed, sterilized and categorized the way hundreds of thousands of immigrants were for decades. And upstairs, on the second floor, patrons can walk the halls where immigrants were once detained in holding cells for months.

They told us ignorance is bliss. They were wrong. Relentless, disorienting persecution. The lonely and isolated human soul. Unpredictable and buffoonish bureaucrats. Swirling accusations. Betrayal. The search for the truth in the midst of institutional silence. Amnesia, forgiveness, transformation, and death. Hilarity and terror, fear and bravery.

Franz Kafka, the lonely insurance clerk, took these elements and feelings and created a world so specific and recognizable that he was honored with his own adjective -Kafkaesque. He diEd Penniless and with no acknowledgement. His own life and death prove the profound, soul-twisting truth of his works. In THE TRIAL Kafka offers us the everyman of Joseph K. Joseph's 40th birthday (on April 1st, no less) begins with the gift of his being awoken by two strange men who inform him that he is "under arrest." From this beginning, Kafka spins a hysterical and disturbing tale of Joseph's next year, as our hero fights to understand and overcome the charges laid to him by a remote and inaccessible power. We watch in horrified hope as Joseph tumbles down the rabbit hole of innocence protested and guilt assumed. Peopled with vixens and lawyers, landladies and managers, Kafka and Joseph K's world is strange and, also, terribly, terribly familiar. Written in 1914-15 and published in 1925 (though actually never finished by Kafka), THE TRIAL has the spine-tingling feel of being absolutely modern.

NCTC affiliate artist John Langs (The Adding Machine) will direct. THE TRIAL features NCTC company artists MJ Sieber, Amy Thone, Michael Patten and NCTC Artistic Director Darragh Kennan as Joseph K. The creative team includes lighting designer and NCTC affiliate artist Geoff Korf, sound designer and NCTC affiliate artist Rob Witmer, costume designer Kim Newton, and set designer Jennifer Zeyl. The stage manager is NCTC company member Ruth Eitemiller. NCTC company member Peter Dylan O'Connor is the production manager, and Troy Fishnaller is the technical director.

THE TRIAL runs Thursday through Saturday at 8pm Sundays at 7pm from tonight, April 5 -28, 2013. An additional preview performance is Wednesday April 4, 2013 at 8pm. There is a special Monday evening performance at 7pm on April 15, 2013. No performance Sunday April 21, 2013. General admission tickets are $30 and senior/student/TPS tickets are $15. Tickets and details are available online at www.wearenctc.org. This production runs 90 minutes with no intermission.

NCTC was founded in 2008 and is comprised of local theatre artists whose work is regularly featured on Seattle's professional stages, as well as numerous regional theatres throughout the country. NCTC artists include: Hans Altwies, Jamie Herlich, Paul Morgan Stetler, Ray Gonzalez, Makaela Pollock, Michael Patten, MJ Sieber, Jen Taylor, Amy Thone, Darragh Kennan, Peter Dylan O'Connor, and Betsy Schwartz. NCTC also welcomes new members Brenda Joyner, Ruth Eitemiller, and affiliate artists Geof Korff, John Langs, Stephanie Timm and Rob Witmer.

Together they share a deep desire to help reinvigorate Seattle's national reputation as a vibrant force of cutting-edge, ambitious, relevant theater. They vow to provide Seattle a fearless ensemble of local artists whose vast experience and developed sense of chemistry provide a cohesive, dynamic, consistent theater-going experience they believe audiences long for.

NCTC is devoted to producing timely, vital stories that will help re-connect Seattle audiences to the transcendent power of live performance. NCTC believes that "story is king" and is committed to plays that are fearless, heightened, sincere, dangerous, crass, erotic, ugly, and full of hope. NCTC shows are produced with a visceral simplicity that will stir your imagination to new heights and will NOT do your thinking for you. Their focus is on pertinent works of the 20th Century; under-produced contemporary masterpieces; and annual world premieres from some of our country's most talented up and coming writers.

Photo Credit: MJ Sieber