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Kafka's Dick

Full-Length Play, Comedy  /  1w, 5m

Kafka's Dick
by Alan Bennett

"A witty, elegant theatrical phantasmagoria." - London Guardian

This hilarious and unusual play satirizes the ridiculous propensity we often have to show less interest in an artist's work than in meaningless details of his private life, such as his sex life.

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    1w, 5m
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Biography, Period

Details

Summary
This hilarious and unusual play satirizes the ridiculous propensity we often have to show less interest in an artist's work than in meaningless details of his private life, such as his sex life. It begins with Kafka near the end of his life making his famous request to his friend Max Brod that his works be burned at his death. We then flash forward to the present, where Kafka fanatic Sydney, an insurance salesman, is laboring away at an article on Kafka for 'Small Print; The Journal of Insurance Studies'. Who should miraculously appear but Kafka himself, followed closely by Brod and finally by Kafka's father, who wants to vindicate himself to posterity. The penultimate scene takes place in Heaven, where Kafka observes: "I'll tell you something. Heaven is going to be hell."
Keywords
  • Setting A living-room, heaven

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £70 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

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Scripts

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Authors

Alan Bennett

Alan Bennett was born in Leeds in 1934. After studying at Oxford University he collaborated as a writer and performer with Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook in Beyond the Fringe in 1960 at the Edinburgh Festival. He then turned to writing full time and produced h ...

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