Steppenwolf Theatre Company Blog – Chicago Theater, World-Class Ensemble

I love rehearsals. I really do. I think I may love rehearsals more than performances.

In the first week are table readings. The play is discussed, analyzed and read again and again. Under the best of circumstances (and with Frank Galati directing his own adaptation, these are the best of circumstances), the first week also involves a good deal of free associating, wool gathering, audacious theorizing and a good deal of (possibly) tangential story telling.

As Kafka on the Shore is a play dealing with dreams, imagination and varying levels of reality, the discussion has been wide-ranging. For instance, did you know that while many of the residents of Davao City in the Philippines find the taste of the durian fruit exquisite, most people just down the road and elsewhere think it revolting? The best way to clean a dog who’s been sprayed by a skunk is to bathe it in ketchup. Some people refuse to believe that their right arm is part of their body. There are people who experience sound as color.

All of this information will prove useful to the production, of course. No one is sure how yet, but it’s sure to prove invaluable.

The script is wonderful. It is, however, not easy. It is fluid in its treatment of reality. It is not a play my 12 year old will be seeing. I feel sure audiences will find it moving, funny and horrifying…though they may not always know why.

I would write about the conclusions I have come to in my characterizations…but I usually end up tossing out much of what I come up with in the first week:

My characters transcend psychology…but maybe they don’t;

My characters are projections of the other characters’ fears and wishes…or maybe they aren’t;

Frank Galati and Haruki Murakami have created a fantastic and fascinating world to inhabit…yes, I’m pretty sure of that.

This entry was posted by Francis Guinan on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 1:08 pm and is filed under Kafka on the Shore. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.