Kafka's Dick

Play written by Alan Bennett

Kafka's Dick is a 1986 play by Alan Bennett which premiered in 1986 at the Royal Court Theatre London.^[1]^[2] It is a play about the nature of fame, and how reputation is gained.

Plot

Set in the 1980s in a Yorkshire suburban dwelling, Kafka aficionado Sydney and his wife Linda are visited by Franz Kafka and his friend Max Brod who are both long dead. (Kafka had left instructions for all his works to be burned, which Brod chose to ignore.)

As the play progresses, it becomes clear that Kafka's wish was for anonymity, and that he had serious issues with his father, who turns up. The father knows a very personal secret about his son, which Kafka is terrified will be disclosed.

Original cast

Kafka - Roger Lloyd-Pack
Brod - Andrew Sachs
Linda - Alison Steadman
Father - Charles Lamb
Sydney - Geoffrey Palmer
Hermann K - Jim Broadbent
Julie - Vivian Pickles

The director was Richard Eyre, designer William Dudley, with music by George Fenton.^[3]

References

^ Loxton, Rebecca First Night Review: Kafka's Dick, 2011 Oxford student production at Cherwell.org, Oxford, 30 November 2011
^ Dalglish, Darren Kafka's Dick, Piccadilly Theatre (Review) at London Theatre Archive, 26 January 1999; unavailable 30 July 2020.
^ Taken from Bennett, Alan. Kafka's dick. Faber and Faber, London, 1986 (limited edition produced on behalf of the Royal Court Theatre for sale only in the theatre).

Franz Kafka (works)

Novels

The Trial
The Castle
Amerika

Short stories

1902–1912	"Shamefaced Lanky and Impure in Heart" "Description of a Struggle" "Wedding Preparations in the Country" "The Judgment" "The Stoker" The Metamorphosis "The Aeroplanes at Brescia"
1914–1917	"In the Penal Colony" "The Village Schoolmaster" "Before the Law" "Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor" "A Country Doctor" "The Hunter Gracchus" "The Great Wall of China" "A Message from the Emperor" "A Report to an Academy" "A Dream" "Up in the Gallery" "A Fratricide" "The Next Village" "A Visit to a Mine" "Jackals and Arabs" "The Bridge" "The Bucket Rider" "The New Advocate" "An Old Manuscript" "The Knock at the Manor Gate" "Eleven Sons" "My Neighbor" "A Crossbreed" "The Cares of a Family Man"
1917–1923	"The Refusal" "A Hunger Artist" "Investigations of a Dog" "A Little Woman" "The Burrow" "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk" "A Common Confusion" "The Truth about Sancho Panza" "The Silence of the Sirens" "Prometheus" "The City Coat of Arms" "Poseidon" "Fellowship" "At Night" "The Problem of Our Laws" "The Conscription of Troops" "The Test" "The Vulture" "The Helmsman" "The Top" "A Little Fable" "Homecoming" "First Sorrow" "The Departure" "Advocates" "The Married Couple" "Give It Up!" "On Parables"