Trial, The

Kafka’s nightmarish tale of Joseph K, a man viciously persecuted for an unknown crime, has lost none of its chilling potency over the years. Now, iconic composer Philip Glass brings his signature style to this literary classic. Working with Academy Award-winning playwright Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons1988), their new opera is brimming with drama, paranoia and Kafka’s notoriously absurd humour. Read more …

The critical consensus

Strong, intense stage performances all round from a cast that combines towering experience with Scottish Opera impressive emerging artists. And how wonderful, too, to be able to hear every single word, clear as a bell.

(*) Ken Walton, The Scotsman, 30/01/2017

The opera’s abrupt ending delivers a blow to the core of our belief in a fair and rational world, and the audience response is unsurprisingly lacklustre. We are left feeling dissatisfied, confused, betrayed – but this might just be the whole point.

(*) Cat Acheson, The Skinny, 30/01/2017

The production, inevitably, cannot match the psychological intensity of the novel, and one can’t help but feel that Banham’s ingenious set loses in thematic scale what it gains in claustrophobia. That said, it draws enough upon Kafka’s genius, and upon the brilliance of Glass and Hampton, to create a rewarding evening’s opera.

Mark Brown, Scottish Stage, 02/02/2017

Dark, brooding and brutal, Scottish Opera’s take on Kafka’s The Trial, catches several areas of resonance and delivers a piece which is as glorious as it it is forbidding.

(*) Thom Dibdin, All Edinburgh Theatre, 04/02/2017