The Trial, Young Vic, Audio Intro
Hello and welcome to this audio introduction to The Trial at the Young Vic
theatre, directed by Richard Jones. It’s from the novel by Franz Kafka, in a
new adaptation by Nick Gill.
The audio described performance is on Saturday 1st August at 2.30pm. There
will be a touch tour at 1pm. If you’d like to book for the touch tour, please call
the Young Vic box office on 020 7922 2922. We’ll repeat this introduction in
the auditorium at 2.15pm. The Trial will be described by Eleanor Margolies
and Kirstin Smith.
The show lasts for just under two hours, with no interval. This introduction will
take 15 minutes to listen to. It gives an overview of the set, characters and
costumes.
The Trial centres on Josef K. and his mysterious arrest for an unknown crime.
The design of the production evokes Eastern Europe in the late sixties or
seventies, with the architecture of the space using chunky blocks of bright
orange wood, with smooth, mitred corners and arched doorways. Furniture in
bedroms, offices, living rooms and waiting rooms is very brown, streamlined
and mass-produced. There is a cast of 12 named actors, most playing more
than one role, plus extras. Some characters wear ordinary, 1970s style dress;
others wear bizarre combinations of clothing, which maintain a ‘70s feel. The
various rooms echo each other in distorted ways, and similarly, many of the
doublings suggest parodies of other characters. For example, the same actor
plays six very different women in K’s life.
For this production, we enter the main Young Vic auditorium through doors
that are usually used as emergency exits. A narrow corridor lined with felt
curtains displays A4 posters showing a young man at various stages of his
childhood and adolescence, with details of misdemeanours committed
beneath. We enter the auditorium through a keyhole shaped opening. The
seating is on benches, each row enclosed by a plain pine booth, like seating
in a court. Three rows of benches rise steeply on either side of a long, narrow
stage, some 10 metres long and 3 metres wide. Above these first rows of
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The Trial, Young Vic, Audio Intro
benches, further rows encircle the auditorium on all four sides.
The stage, like the surrounding booths, is made of pale plywood. An opening
– an enormous keyhole – is cut out lengthways in the centre of the stage floor.
At the far left and right of the stage, large openings are framed in bright
orange wood, with black strip curtains hiding what lies beyond. To the side of
each opening are three small diagrams in the style of safety information signs.
In the first, a stick figure attempts to rise from a bed; in the next the figure is
tied to the bed; in the third, something is being applied to the bound figure
from beneath — perhaps knives or flames. Under the diagrams are two
buttons — red and green – like the on/off controls for a goods lift or an unseen
machine. As we enter, the whole space is lit in a dazzling, confrontational
orange.
As the play begins, the orange keyhole stage is lifted up on wires, right above
the level of the auditorium balconies. Fluorescent strip lights line the
underside. This becomes the ceiling for another stage, now revealed beneath.
Most of the width of this stage is taken up by a black conveyor belt that runs
down its full length, disappearing out of sight at either end behind the curtains
of black strips, as in an airport luggage carousel or production line. Down the
middle of the conveyor belt, there’s a row of small symbols of stick men, in the
act of running. The conveyor belt moves between scenes, and sometimes
during them. At first it moves only in one direction, but later in the play it
reverses. Thin bands of wood edge the conveyor belt along its length.
As the belt moves, we change location. One set of objects slides away,
disappearing through the black strips, and another slides in. All the rooms use
the same set of interchangeable furniture in cheap-looking, orangey-brown
wood: low oval or circular coffee tables; narrow single beds with storage
drawers underneath; wooden chairs with black vinyl seats; standard lamps
with printed shades. An anachronistic touch is provided by the wastepaper
bins which are miniature wheeliebins in bright orange. Rooms are arranged
along the narrow belt, with a free-standing door at each end. There are three
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The Trial, Young Vic, Audio Intro
bedrooms, each with an identical set of furniture, but with slightly different
designs of duvet cover and lampshade. Cupboards set flush into the lefthand
side of the openings at each end of the belt contain clothes and other props.
There are more than 20 characters.
The only constant is Josef K. A blue-eyed, brown-haired man in his late
thirties, K has a round, clean-shaven face with a broad brow. His short, bristly
hair is slightly thinner on top. Of medium build, K works in a bank and wears a
non-descript, pinstriped charcoal suit, with a faintly striped blue and white shirt
and grey tie, and black brogues. Later he swaps for a bottle green, double
breasted jacket with brass buttons. He first appears in a white vest, striped
boxer shorts and grey socks. K often speaks to us in monologue, sometimes
referring to us as if we are nosy residents in neighbouring blocks, peering into
his narrow bedroom. It’s a bare room, with a duvet cover in a brown and
cream geometric pattern.
K’s neighbour Rosa is a bright-eyed young woman, about a head shorter than
K. Her blonde hair falls to her shoulders, with a thick fringe. Rosa has an open
expression, big eyes emphasised by blue-eyeshadow, and she’s quick to
smile and laugh. Rosa wears a crocheted, pale pink dress, which comes
down to her knees, with stockings, sparkly, chunky heels and a fluffy fake fur
coat in a clashing shade of pink. In her room, Rosa puts on a silky yellow
dressing gown. Her coffee tables are crammed with framed snapshots of
family and friends, her bedspread is pink and lacy, and there’s a record player
on the floor.
Their landlady Mrs Barrow is in her late 50s: her short curly hair bleached
blonde with orange tips, her face caked in make-up, red lips pursed in
disapproval. She’s trussed up in a cream and orange floral dressing gown
from which emerge the sleeves of a pale blue nylon nightie.
In K’s apartment, we meet the Comptroller and two guards. The Comptroller
is a short woman in a black trouser suit, with glasses, short black hair and a
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The Trial, Young Vic, Audio Intro
severe expression. She’s accompanied by two guards: a lanky man in grey
trousers and a blue nylon windcheater, his long grey hair falling limply over his
eyes, and a small woman with a cap of curly hair, in a puffy jacket and
kneelength print dress, teamed with shapeless black lace ups.
K’s office at the bank slides in. In the centre is a green-topped wooden desk,
with drawers beneath. The desk holds a phone, answer phone, papers, and a
large brushed steel sign reading ‘VICE PRESIDENT’. A clock about a metre
across hangs down from above. Framed in orange, the clock has a tiny
symbol of a running man in the middle. The wastepaper bin is an orange
miniature wheelie bin, slightly larger than the one in K’s bedroom. When the
bank appears a second time, everything is the same but the orientation of the
office has been reversed, with the desk now facing the opposite side of the
belt. It gives an uneasy sense that something has changed profoundly but no
one inside the office has noticed.
K’s junior colleague Kyle is a tall, slender young man in his early twenties,
whose handsome brow is constantly creased with simpering professionalism.
He has brown hair, smoothed to one side, wears an ostentatiously modish
doublebreasted suit in a pale grey check, shirt and tie, and often carries a
black box file. His stylish socks are maroon with white polka dots.
K’s other colleagues are a shifty collection of half a dozen men and women,
who never speak, and avert their gaze whenever K catches their eye. Most
are middle aged and wear anonymous grey suits, with belted beige macs on
top. In the office, they stand between the conveyor belt and front row, sifting
through box files. Three colleagues form a watchful chorus, gathering
awkwardly outside K’s room, with neutral expressions, as if they’re just getting
on with their jobs.
K’s Uncle Albert is in his 70s, balding with a fringe of white hair, ruddy cheeks
and large spectacles. He wears checked shirt, blue nylon trousers and a
maroon knitted waistcoat with gilt buttons. Albert’s eyebrows have a life of
their own, flicking up and down as he listens anxiously.
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The Trial, Young Vic, Audio Intro
Albert takes K to see a lawyer, Mrs Grace. She is in her late 50s with blonde
bouffant hair, gold jewellery, high heels and a chic white and mint green polka
dot dress. She later adds a matching raincoat. She’s trim and heavily made
up. Mrs Grace’s apartment is decorated with china models of dogs on every
surface, and a photo of a German shepherd on the lampshade. Outside her
door is a full size orange wheelie bin.
Also living at Mrs Grace’s is a teenage girl, Cherry. She wears a white blouse
and short tartan kilt, with ankle socks and Maryjane shoes. Her curly dark bob
is held back with slides, schoolgirl style, and she has a whistle on a cord
around her neck. Her bedroom has a lampshade with the lips and tongue logo
of the Rolling Stones, and a pop print for the duvet cover. Framed black and
white photos of male heartthrobs stand on the side tables, and there’s a
record player and stack of records on the floor.
We also meet Mrs Grace’s friend, who wears a floorlength dress of rainbow
striped lurex, long brown hair and large glasses, in the style of sixties singer
Nana Mouskouri. She concentrates on completing a large jigsaw on the dining
table.
One of Mrs Grace’s clients is a young clerk called Block. He’s played by the
same actor who plays Kyle, K’s junior at the bank. K gives him a perplexed
look as if he recognises him. Block has lank hair hanging over his face and a
large tattoo or dirty mark on his forehead. He wears a filthy suit that is too
small for him, exposing lanky wrists and ankles, and no socks. He scuttles
about with stacks of overstuffed canary yellow envelopes.
We eventually visit the court. The Magistrate is a dumpy man in his sixties,
with grey hair greased over a bald patch, smeary thick glasses, and a grimy
vest under tattered black jacket and trousers. He wears brown sandals and
black socks. He’s accompanied by a shambling and shuffling crowd all in
black, with tight black hoods that cover their ears, under black trilby hats.
They carry huge red law books and wear socks and sandals.
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The Trial, Young Vic, Audio Intro
The waiting room in the court information office is inhabited by members of
the public in sludgey tweeds, headscarves and hats, all clutching stacks of
yellow envelopes. Two members of staff sit behind a desk: a man in blue vest
with a bow tie and short-sleeved shirt, and a woman with grey hair scraped
back into a bun, dressed in layers of beige and brown. Chastity, a redheaded cleaner at the court, wears a very short denim miniskirt, checked
overall and plimsolls. A sleazy law student wears blue jeans and a tight black
leather jacket with an opennecked white shirt.
The artist Tudor recalls Andy Warhol in style, with his pale face and white
bob, tight black leather trousers, black shirt open to the waist and gold lurex
waistcoat. Tudor’s metalworking tools are spread out on the floor in two
canvas tool rolls. His assistant wears a tight black dress with a ruffled white
blouse underneath, showing off her cleavage, and high heels.
Other characters include Tiffany, a call-girl in pink baby doll dress and black
silky bob; a middle-aged woman doctor in white coat and tweedy checked
skirt, and an official flogger, a sinister figure in black.
Cast and Production Credits
Josef K
Rory Kinnear
Rosa/one of the Guards/Chastity/Cherry and Tiffany
Kate O’Flynn
Mrs Barrow/Information Officer
Sarah Crowden
Comptroller /Defendant
Weruche Opia
The other Guard/Tudor
Richard Cant
Kyle /Block
Hugh Skinner
Uncle Albert / Magistrate
Steven Beard
Mrs Grace / Doctor
Sian Thomas
Mrs Grace’s friend
Suzy King
Law Student / Flogger
Marc Antolin
Other roles are played by Charlie Folorunsho and Neil Haigh.
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The Trial, Young Vic, Audio Intro
Direction
Richard Jones
Design
Miriam Buether
Costumes
Nicky Gilibrand
Light
Mimi Jordan Sherin
Music
David Sawer
Sound
David Sawer and Alex Twistelton
Movement
Sarah Fahie
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