Review: Scena Theatre's REPORT TO AN ACADEMY Shows Kafka at his Unnerving Best

Franz Kafka, for many, is an acquired taste; his paranoid vision of modern life, his fondness for cockroaches and his gallows humor can be off-putting. But as Europe descended into totalitarian hell and Holocaust shortly after his death, it dawned on us that the man was a genius who understood all too well what we are capable of. What seemed absurd at first and almost science-fiction like turned out to be all too prophetic, and he has predicted with unnerving accuracy all the manias and cruelties we have continued to visit upon each other for the past century.

It's not paranoia, after all, if they really are out to get you. And Kafka's work is devoted to the plight of the innocent soul trapped in a totalitarian environment, struggling to survive by any means necessary.

His short story, Report to an Academy, now being staged by Scena Theatre at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, features Kafka at his most perceptive and humane. The speaker is an African ape nicknamed Red Peter who has been forced to act like a modern European male-not his choice, of course. Learning to walk upright, dress himself, shake hands and speak a human tongue are challenges he has embraced in order to enjoy some vague modicum of freedom, or a "way out" as he puts it.

The ape inside has to be on display here, and Roy Spahn ensures that McNamara is decked as awkwardly as possible, right down to the impossibly short tie and crumpled hat, while Denise Rose adds sonic touches that veer between music hall kitsch and quiet emotion.

Robert McNamara, as Red Peter, opens this production of Report by lurching awkwardly, cane in hand, through the audience and across the stage. As directed by Gabriele Jakobi, McNamara embodies a character so utterly alienated from his own body, his own voice, his own face, that nearly everything you see is forced and artificial. Still, his ape-like lack of self-consciousness resurfaces when he lurches back towards the audience, going "in your face" in ways that a typical public speaker, or actor, wouldn't dare to do.

One of the most fascinating aspects of this production is Jakobi's choreography of McNamara's movements; it's obvious that Red Peter has his tics, in particular a tendency to morph into the Variety Show act he was trained to perform, shuffling from side to side and raising his hat and cane as if for applause. Not in that order, either-these tics emerge seemingly out of nowhere, arbitrary bits of learned behavior deployed almost instinctively as a defense mechanism.

The divorce between the 'performer' and his soul is painfully obvious, and the sense of self-alienation is made all the more poignant in moments when Peter retreats upstage to cradle his head and rock himself sane, before reaching once again for his half-pint bottle of Schnapps.

The effect is striking, but is undermined somewhat by the quirkiness of McNamara's delivery of Red Peter's 'report.' The voice must have its own awkwardness, its own instinctive quirks and tics, but there are times when the lines are inaudible or incomprehensible. It's a fine line, admittedly, between being true to the character's physicality and being true to the audience's need to know; but Kafka's depiction of the human tragedy is made through language, and the performance would be much stronger if McNamara delivered the lines-in whatever register-more audibly, to further heighten the irony and sense of humor in Kafka's original. He clearly has the chops to cover a wide range of vocal expression, and there are many moments of insight, dark and otherwise, in Report to an Academy. One or two of them burst forth in McNamara's delivery, but there are many more to be had as well and I think modulating the vocal delivery will give the performance, already potent, an even greater impact.

At one point, Kafka/Red Peter turns the cruelty of his situation into a universal one, reminding us that "Your life as apes ... cannot be farther removed from you than mine is from me ... everyone on earth feels a tickling at the heels; the small chimpanzee and the great Achilles alike." Are we truly free, or have we simply managed the feat of controlling our animal impulses in socially acceptable ways? And is that self-control what's really called for? What's the ultimate price for finding this 'way out' that Red Peter, and all of us, seek? Scena's Report to an Academy raises vital questions about the human condition.

Production Photo: Robert McNamara as Red Peter. Courtesy of Jae Yi Photography.

Running Time: 1 hour and 45 minutes, with no intermission.

Report to an Academy runs September 2-25 at the Atlas Performing Arts center, 1333 H Street NE, Washington, D.C. For tickets, call the Atlas box office at 202-399-7993 or online at https://atlasarts.secure.force.com/ticket/#details_a0Si0000004jL61EAE .