Kafka’s Ape, Photograph by Zivanai Matangi
The play, directed by Phala O. Phala, is an adaptation of Franz Kafka’s “A Report to an Academy,” the story of ape Red Peter who escapes his cage by learning to imitate humanity. In Kafka’s Ape, set in post-apartheid South Africa, Phala and Miyambo highlight the complexities of identity in the twenty-first century and invite us to explore, through an animal’s gaze, the relationship between self and other.
The performance is part of a mini season of Franz Kafka works presented by The Centre for the Less Good Idea. Miyambo has received several accolades for Kafka’s Ape, including the 2017 NHISS Best Public Performance Award, the 2019 Best Satire Award at the United Solo Festival in New York, and the 2020 Graham F. Smith Peace Foundation Award at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, among others. Miyambo has toured Kafka’s Ape across South Africa and abroad.
19:15 Kafka’s Ape, performed by Tony Bonani Miyambo
20:00 In Conversation on Franz Kafka: with Jane Taylor (CHR), Phala O. Phala, William Kentridge, and Tony Bonani Miyambo.
19:15 A Hunger Artist
19:30 A Common Confusion
20:00 Kafka’s Ape
A KAFKA MOMENT includes performers Ameera Patel, Clare Loveday, Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu, Antony Coleman, Sue Pam-Grant, Kevin Smith, Michael Mazibuko, Dan Selsick, and Tony Bonani Miyambo.
CHR Artist in Residence Tony Miyambo is on tour performing Kafka’s Ape and The Cenotaph of Dan Wa Moriri.
The CHR fellowship programme will continue in 2022 through online platforms and, where permitted, limited live events hosted in compliance with COVID-19 protocols. Please follow our events page for updates about events.