Alienation in Kafka’s the Metamorphosis (on Stage): From Steven Berkoff’s Vision to Lemn Sissay’s Interpretation

This study examines the phenomenon of alienation in two different theatre adaptations of Kafka’s The Metamor phosis. The adaptations examined in this study are Metamorphosis, written and directed by Steven Berkoff, which premiered at the London Round Theatre in 1969 and Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, adapted by Lemn Sissay for the Theatre Royal Plymouth in 2023. The phenomenon that Marx claimed that capitalism distances people from themselves, their labour and their environment, and theorized as alienation, remains a persistent thematic core in the two theatre adaptations, as in the original text. These productions not only reaffirm the alienation experienced by the protagonist Gregor Samsa, but also extend this condition to other members of the Samsa family, reflecting broader dimensions of alienation shaped by the patriarchal form of the society. Considering that the Berkoff version of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, which was first published in 1915, was created in 1969 and the Sissay version was created in 2023, it is obvious that capitalism has undergone a great change in the intervening 108 years by expanding its geographical and economic sphere of influence. The main subject of the study is to examine the economic and social realities of their periods in the Berkoff adaptation of the late 60s, when the footsteps of neoliberalism were heard, and the Sissay adaptations, which are the product of the post-neoliberal period. Using the historical comparative method, the study comparatively examines the alienation processes of the characters by placing the original text and the 1969 and 2023 adaptations in their historical contexts.