By Maura Judkis
February 1, 2013
The Washington Post
Think you had a weird dream last night? It’s probably nothing compared to the one playing out in Spooky Action Theater’s “Kafka on the Shore,” which features a teenage runaway named Kafka, Colonel Sanders, Johnnie Walker, a maybe-prostitute, UFOs and a talking cat. The play, adapted from the novel by Haruki Murakami, dips between the conscious and subconscious mind, the past and the near-present, the spirit world and reality.
“If your subconscious turns out to be a shared experience with other people in theater, you’re all going to a place that’s like a dream world, and you’re all feeling it together,” says artistic director Richard Heinrich. “How does that feel? And then [you’re] walking out of the theater thinking, ‘I was having the most incredible dream, and everyone was dreaming it with me.’ ”
Yes, “Kafka on the Shore” is a challenging (but humorous!) work, raising more questions than answers.
“It’s an unusual play, and it has some pleasures that are unusual,” says director Rebecca Holderness.
Read the full article at The Washington Post.
