Kafkas Ape Is Brave, Gripping, Important Theatre

Actor Tony Miyambo didnt so much arrive on stage as land with all the potency and force of a tightly wound coil.

Once there, he delivered not merely a monologue but a manifesto of the heart, an emotionally raw and powerful outpouring that seemed to emanate from the very depths of his soul. It was for the full 50 minutes of his performance in Kafkas Ape impossible to escape the pull of Miyambos unwavering focus and compelling energy.

What he brought to the stage was his everything: intellect and heart, mind and body. And perhaps most of all his incredible humanity.

A lively, fierce and frequently funny stage adaptation of Franz Kafkas 1917 story Report to an Academy , this is one of those emotionally roller-coasterish plays that, done right, causes the molecules in the room to vibrate differently. Theres a kind of transmutation that occurs, changing the shared space of the auditorium into something sacred.

With just a few props: a carry-all, a walking stick, a lectern and, later, a frame to climb on, Miyambo becomes Red Peter, an ape who has for all intents and purposes become humanised, been civilised in order to escape the brutality of his human captors and avoid a lifetime of imprisonment.