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An earful of Franz Kafka

Oct 23, 2024 07:31 PM IST

Franz Kafka centenary was commemorated in New Delhi with ‘I, Josef’, an unusual ‘headphone theatre’ performance of the German author’s unfinished novella, ‘The Trial’

On an evening in early September, I found myself in the company of 30 others, assembled in the dark hall of New Delhi’s Goethe-Institut. We each sat in our chairs wearing black wireless headphones as we waited for Franz Kafka’s literary genius to come alive through a sonorous rendition.

‘I, Josef’, a ‘headphone theatre’ performance by Kaivalya Plays (Arunima Mazumdar)
‘I, Josef’, a ‘headphone theatre’ performance by Kaivalya Plays (Arunima Mazumdar)

Presented by Kaivalya Plays, I, Josef is an immersive binaural audio and multimedia experience based on Kafka’s unfinished novella, The Trial, a book that ranks with, if not above, his other famous work, The Metamorphosis. Directed and designed by Gaurav Singh Nijjer, and scripted and adapted by Varoon P Anand in commemoration of Kafka’s centenary, this unique first-person sonic perspective enables listeners to imagine a world administered by the mighty and powerful.

During the performance (Arunima Mazumdar)
During the performance (Arunima Mazumdar)

With the main lights completely out and only a few streaks of red and white laser LEDs lending a necessary tension to the ambience, we listen to the quarrelling acoustics of Joseph K waking up to two strangers in his room. Inexplicably arrested and put on trial for an unspecified crime, our protagonist’s protests against the policemen oscillate between a high-pitched defence and helpless acquiescence.

“I first learned about ‘headphone theatre’ during my master’s degree at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (University of London), where I was introduced to aurality and sound as a storyteller in theatre. I learned about binaural audio technology and created a 10-min headphone theatre piece that used binaural recordings of public parks and the conversations I overheard. Since then, I have been interested in developing an audio-first performance for a live audience that reimagines our relationship with sound,” says Nijjer.

His intent, he explains, with I, Josef is to immerse the audience in a binaural soundscape with voices, footsteps, whispers, and city noises, that bring them closer to Josef’s confusion, his despair, and his search for meaning. The shift from the text’s third person narrative to a direct encounter is deliberate and challenges the listener to feel what Josef does, to experience his world from within.

This isn’t, however, the first time that Kafka’s work has been adapted into interactive media formats. Back in 2019, German filmmaker Mika Johnson, in collaboration with Goethe-Institut, transformed The Metamorphosis into a first-ever 360-degree virtual reality (VR) experience. The headphone theatre experience is comparatively different.

“When you listen to binaural audio through headphones, you’re hearing sound as if it’s coming from different directions — front, back, above, or below. It mimics the way we naturally hear sounds in the real world, allowing our brain to perceive depth, direction, and distance. This effect is achieved by capturing sound with special microphones shaped like human ears,” explains Nijjer.

“Just as writing a screenplay is about writing down things that can be visualised, writing an audio or radio play is about writing things that can be recognised when they are heard. “ (Arunima Mazumdar)
“Just as writing a screenplay is about writing down things that can be visualised, writing an audio or radio play is about writing things that can be recognised when they are heard. “ (Arunima Mazumdar)

The script’s adaptation to this format was steered and led by Varoon. “Just as writing a screenplay is about writing down things that can be visualised, writing an audio or radio play is about writing things that can be recognised when they are heard. For example, the characters have to identify themselves by name when they speak, because we can’t see and recognise them. It also means that the sounds have to give you a sense of place. When we write scripts for an audio experience, we have to spell out the actions we perform. We need to see if they can be identified from the sounds. The sound of pots clanging in the kitchen for example, or the “ouch” you yell when you burn your finger,” he explains.

Kafka’s fiction stands apart. In his extreme imagination of the absurd, he managed to find themes and ideas relevant to the world, both then and now. An enigmatic storyteller, or simply a nondescript employee at an insurance company who was obsessed with words, Kafka became a prominent literary figure only after his death in the summer of 1924.

The Trial was Franz Kafka’s seminal work, written over a century ago, but it still resonates powerfully. The protagonist’s entrapment within a legal system that is opaque and unyielding feels eerily relevant in contemporary India. The questions Kafka raises — about authority, justice, and individual freedom — seem more pertinent than ever. I, Josef is not just a performance — it is a conversation. A conversation between Kafka’s text and our times, between you and the unseen characters, and perhaps most importantly, between you and yourself,” says Gaurav.

After an intense 45 minutes of listening to vehement disagreements, incessant ringing of the telephone, muffled grunts, and struggled lungful of breaths over a taped mouth, the performance comes to end. That Kafka’s world exudes a sense of exile is a known fact, but to have it pierce the walls of your imagination is somewhat unsettling.

An intense 45 minutes of listening to vehement disagreements, incessant ringing of the telephone, muffled grunts, and struggled lungful of breaths over a taped mouth.” (Arunima Mazumdar)
An intense 45 minutes of listening to vehement disagreements, incessant ringing of the telephone, muffled grunts, and struggled lungful of breaths over a taped mouth.” (Arunima Mazumdar)

For more than 12 years, Kaivalya Plays has been presenting theatre through different formats and their I, Josef definitely delivers. The founders — Gaurav and Varoon — have striven to make theatre more accessible and adaptable. They aim to explore other works in similar formats as well. These include Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Goethe’s Faust, James Joyce’s Dubliners, and Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, along with Indian classics by Habib Tanvir and Ruskin Bond. They also intend to move beyond traditional arts spaces and enter classrooms, offices, and courts.

Arunima Mazumdar is an independent writer. She is @sermoninstone on Twitter and @sermonsinstone on Instagram.

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