Silent Cicadas and Noisy Burrowers: Kafka Inside Out in Thailand

Abstract

In 2015, the Unfolding Kafka Festival was initiated by Thai dancer/choreographer Jitti Chompee, exploring the writings of Franz Kafka as a source of creativity for performers in Thailand and the Southeast Asian region. Three of the presented artworks focus on the concept of metamorphosis, and the body’s interaction with the environments it both creates and inhabits. Inspired by Isabelle Schad’s dance Der Bau (The Burrow), Chompee and visual artist/scenographer Yoko Seyama created Silence of the Insects, which adopted the cicada as a model of bodily transformation. Together, the two dances and the installation form an assemblage that can be considered under the rubric of Una Chaudhuri’s concept of a ‘theatre of species’. Catherine Diamond is Professor of Theatre and Environmental Literature at Soochow University in Taiwan, and is the director/playwright of the Kinnari Ecological Theatre Project, creating new plays addressing environmental issues in Southeast Asia.