A Common Confusion sees a trio of performers, namely Sue Pam-Grant, Kevin Smith, and Antony Coleman, grappling with Kafka’s short story by the same name. Kitted in out in matching blue coats, white dress shirts, grey slacks and black boots, the three flit between slick, synchronised choreography and sharp bursts of comedic narration. Muddled instructions, the passing of time, and the existential yet slightly irreverent take on life and labour that Kafka is well-known for, all find resonance in this staging of A Common Confusion.

A Kafka Moment is a mini-season of select works that were created or performed at The Centre for the Less Good Idea, and prompted by the writings of Franz Kafka.

Taking place at The Centre in April 2021 and leveraged off of an invitation of Kafka's Ape by the University of Toronto, Canada and the University of Western Cape, the mini-season was spread across two evenings, each featuring a unique programme of performances, staged for a limited live audience and live-streamed for free on The Centre’s YouTube channel.

Performers included Ameera Patel, Clare Loveday, Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu, Jane Taylor, Antony Coleman, Sue Pam-Grant, Kevin Smith, Michael Mazibuko, Dan Selsick and Tony Bonani Miyambo.

Using the comical, grotesque, existential, and frighteningly prophetic writings of Kafka as a springboard, the performances that make up A Kafka Moment are at once experimental and macabre, playful and surreal. At the core of each programme is an attempt at puzzling out the nature of the short-form on stage – the activity of reading aloud, the embodiment of the short story in the performer, or the testing of new ideas through hybrid analogue and digital forms.

– David Mann

CREDITS:

PERFORMERS | Sue Pam-Grant, Kevin Smith, Antony Coleman & Dan Selsick
WRITER | Franz Kafka
STAGE MANAGERS | Dimakatso Motholo & Nthabiseng Malaka