Franz Kafka wanted all his work to be burned when he died. Thankfully, in an act of heroic recalcitrance, Max Brod, Kafka’s friend and executor, disregarded his dying wish. Thanks to Brod, we’ve lived alongside the Czech author’s grisly yet scintillating tales of body horror, individual struggles against withering bureaucracies, and fables about the absurd moral systems we have created for ourselves as humans.
In a musical comedy from writer and musician James Harvey, “Kafkaesque” transmigrates Kafka’s achingly relevant stories, dripping with gallows-humor, into an American setting, coming to Stissing Center on Aug. 9.
You might hear the word Kafkaesque bandied about by academics or members of the literati, but at its core, it describes a feeling of powerlessness in the face of bureaucracy—an experience Kafka captured in his stories. One internet meme illustrates this sensation as standing in line at the DMV for two hours, only to be told you forgot to bring the Declaration of Independence. That’s Kafkaesque.
“If you’ve ever tried to get a prescription approved by your health insurance company, you’ll see that we’re very much at the mercy of corporate bureaucracy,” said Harvey.
In this rip-roaring musical comedy, Harvey, 33, makes the case that Kafka, who died in 1924, remains a perennial teacher, guiding us through our complex American life, full of faceless corporate overlords and white-knuckled social melees.
“A friend described something as Kafkaesque, and because of my inferiority complex, not knowing a reference, I had to learn what it meant,” said Harvey. “I read most of his works and fell deeply in love.”
“Kafkaesque,” Harvey’s musical comedy, blends the stories of Kafka into one story of a modern-day American family. There’s Gregor the son, an allusion to Gregor Samsa from Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” who wakes up one day to find himself transformed into a “monstrous vermin.” Samsa’s first thought is what will my employer think about this? Anyone who has had a family emergency, wringing their hands about how to explain it to their boss, will sympathize.
There’s the daughter, Greta, an anorexic livestreamer who broadcasts her eating disorder to rubbernecking audiences tuning in from the digital realm. Her character parallels Kafka’s short story “The Hunger Artist,” where a circus freak fasts for months in a cage as a form of performance art to an increasingly indifferent audience.
The mother, Karen Samsa, becomes the victim of cancel culture. Like Josef K. in Kafka’s “The Trial,” Karen is pilloried by her peers for vague and unnamed transgressions, never learning what her crime was.
“I feel like we’ve been having this culture war conversation for 10 plus years,” said Harvey. “Anything you can say about it on either side is just completely trite and kind of maddening. We’re stuck in a loop.”
Harvey has written music for cabarets, accompanied singers and actors, and performed alongside musical theater legends such as Alan Cumming and Catherine Cohen. In “Kafkaesque,” Harvey brings his multiple talents into one show. Not only did he write and score the musical, he also stars as Kafka himself, portraying the writer as a shadowy saloon pianist.
The show was first performed at The New York Theater Festival in 2023. Patrick Trettenero, Executive Director of Stissing Center, was in the audience, and immediately recognized the show’s multi-layered message and infectious comedy.
“James is a rare bird; he is exquisitely talented,” said Trettenero. “Even though [Kafkaesque] is full of wit and big laughs, I think this play does prompt a deeper reflection, to allow the audience to find meaning in the madness.”
Trettenero joined as the producer of the show, and helped secure an Off-Broadway run in October 2024. The show is continuing to build, and Harvey and Trettenero are aiming high, with a dream to secure a commercial Off-Broadway run.
At Stissing Center, the cast, all musical theater veterans, will do a concert reading of the play. “It’s an amazing cast of performers,” said Harvey. “They’re all either stand-up comedians, improvisers, or writers themselves who are also experienced musical theater performers.”
The performers will have scripts in hand, and audiences will get to see a work in progress, an intimate look at the development of a show in its early stages. If it does have a commercial run in New York City, Stissing Center audiences will get to tout that they saw it before it went big.
With its dark landscape of faceless bureaucracies and guilt-ridden characters, “Kafkaesque” is riotously funny, full of quick-witted jokes, music, and dancing, a testament to the human ability to laugh in the face of the absurdities of everyday life.
“Kafkaesque” will be presented at Stissing Center at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 9. Tickets start at $35.