ED2019 4/5 Reviews ED2019 Children's Shows Reviews

Beetlemania: Kafka For Kids (The Kafkateers)

By | Published on Saturday 10 August 2019

As we are reminded by our ‘serious’ opening, Kafka’s stories are almost all about unhappy men, often with health problems. Not exactly fertile ground for a round of smart, knockabout child-friendly comedy, you might suppose. You’d be wrong. Things take a meta-Kafka turn early on with the – as it turns out – recurring intervention of officialdom. The show is co-opted by two rather more obviously child-friendly performers, who undertake to do a series of Kafka shorts, building up to the grand finale of ‘Metamorphosis’. Or will they? Gags, props and references scattergun across the age range in the room – mostly landing somewhere or other. The closing number rhymes “mess” with “Kafka-esque” and, frankly, if that’s not got you on board, I can’t help you.

Underbelly Cowgate, until 25 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Bruce Blacklaw]

READ MORE ABOUT: |