Report To An Academy – Scena Theatre / Courtyard Theatre, London

Scena Theatre’s stage version of Kafka’s short story Report to an Academy leaves plenty of food for thought.

Report to an Academy

It’s the story of an ape.  An ape, more specifically, who has learned to act as humans do.  His name is Red Peter, and he has been invited to give a report to us, the members of an academy.  Sound odd?  Well it might make more sense when you know it’s based (almost verbatim) on a short story by Franz Kafka.

Kafka wrote A Report to an Academy in 1917.  There are obvious parallels to The Metamorphosis in its poking into the sometimes permeable barriers between human and not human.  But, more bleakly, there are also parallels with the way in many human beings have been paraded and showcased, in order for Europeans to marvel at their degree of ‘civilisation’.  Other theories see it as a satirisation of Jewish assimilation. Or perhaps it is an exhortation on animal rights and vegetarianism. Like the best short stories, there is plenty of room for interpretation.

I couldn’t help but come back to thoughts of enslavement, colonialism and performative ‘civilisation’ during Robert McNamara’s performance of Report to an Academy.  A production by Washington D.C.-based Scena Theatre and directed by Gabriele Jakobi, it is on at the Courtyard Theatre as part of the Camden Fringe (although you’ll have to be quick to catch the final performances there).  Much like Kafka’s story is a direct address to an audience, Report to an Academy is a monologue with us in the role of the academy.  McNamara, jaunty in a suit and hat, limps in, cane in hand.  He proceeds to relate to us how he got that limp, and the scar on his face, during his capture in the Gold Coast (now Ghana). He relates the cruelty of his too-small cage, a trick to hasten his subjugation.  How he ‘aped’ the sailors around him, learning to smoke a pipe and drink schnapps.  How choosing the path of the variety stage rather than the zoo was a conscious choice to leave open a sliver of hope, however small, of a way out.

Extraordinary Stories Require an Extraordinary Approach

It’s a compelling story, but still an undeniably peculiar one.  And it takes a particular sort of performance to pull off.  It reminded me, in some ways, of this article.  You’re going to have to bear with me for a moment, because it’s about Nicholas Cage.  But the pertinent point – and the reason this article stuck with me – is that, viewed in one way, Nicholas Cage’s acting is not like others of his generation. A little over the top, some might say.  But viewed in another way, if there is one thing he does consistently, no matter the role, it’s Act (with a capital A for emphasis).  Likewise McNamara’s isn’t a naturalistic performance.  He jeers, gurns, does a little vaudeville movement with his cane. But what is a naturalistic performance, when you’re playing an ape who is now human (or so it seems)? Anything less than this animated and energetic performance frankly wouldn’t work. It’s in performatively aping himself that Red Peter has found his sliver, not of freedom perhaps, but of breathing room.  But without an appreciation for this nuance, Report to an Academy may not be for everyone.

It certainly was for me, though.  I really enjoyed it.  If you don’t catch it as part of Camden Fringe, do go and see it if it pops up elsewhere.  The production has travelled to Africa and Europe (including performances in Kyiv in 2023) so it’s possible. If nothing else it will make you question how you perceive otherness, and what exactly you would expect of a former ape if you were to meet one.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4/5

Report to an Academy on until 6 August 2024.  Camden Fringe runs until 25 August 2024.  More info and tickets here.