EDINBURGH 2019: Review: THE CASTLE, Greenside

"You misinterpret everything. Even the silence." How's that for a bloody line?!

Old Dog Theatre are breathing new life into Kafka's The Castle with some exceptional puppetry work and a gift of a storyline.

K has been summoned by the Count to work as a land surveyor at The Castle. In perfect, maddening Kafka form, no one will communicate, confirm anything or explain what's happening. Things are as they are, and hierarchy and secrets control everyone.

K is left fighting for answers in a place that simultaneously offered him a job and also wishes him to leave and never come back. No one tells a story quite like Kafka does.

ODT work seamlessly as an ensemble - from multi-rolling all of the various characters, to puppeteering, to moving set and being on stage tech, they are a well-oiled machine. Cleverly, Sam Hill as K is the only member of the company who plays just one part, and so he is quite literally working outside of the insular Castle community.

Everything has been so carefully thought of, which is why the rushed ending comes as a surprise. Time doesn't always pass in a conventional way in the piece, but the final jump comes completely out of the blue.

The real star of the show is Alex Milledge's intricate and beautifully designed K puppet. The opening scene, as the little K struggles to walk through snow and wind, is stunning. The whole company get together to take him on his mammoth journey - sheets are wafted, as paper snow is fanned, wind howls. It's a very holistic experience for the audience.

I do want to warn everyone though that you will have to walk past torn pages of books when you're leaving, and they are thrown as paper airplanes at one point. I understand you're trying to "change the way people think about literature", ODT, but not cool.

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/castle

Photo credit: Ruth Anna Phillips

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