Kafka's Dick by Alan Bennett

Kafka's Dick by Alan Bennett

This hilarious and unusual play satirizes the ridiculous propensity we often have to show less interest in an artist's work than in meaningless details of his private life, such as his sex life. It begins with Kafka near the end of his life making his famous request to his friend Max Brod that his works be burned at his death. We then flash forward to the present, where Kafka fanatic Sydney, an insurance salesman, is laboring away at an article on Kafka for 'Small Print; The Journal of Insurance Studies'. Who should miraculously appear but Kafka himself, followed closely by Brod and finally by Kafka's father, who wants to vindicate himself to posterity. The penultimate scene takes place in Heaven, where Kafka observes: I'll tell you something. Heaven is going to be hell.

Alan Bennett was educated at Leeds Modern School and Exeter College, Oxford, where he read history. While doing postgraduate research he began to perform in cabaret, appearing first on the stage with the Oxford Theatre Group revue Better Late at Edinburgh in 1959. The following year he collaborated with Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller, and Dudley Moore to put together the revue Beyond the Fringe which opened in Edinburgh and subsequently in the West End and on Broadway. Bennett's first stage play, Forty Years On, played for more than a year in the West End. Subsequent plays included Getting On, Habeas Corpus, and The Old Country, as well as the television play An Englishman Abroad. Alan Bennett's other best known works include his adaptation of The Wind in the Willows for the National Theatre, The Madness of George III (and also for the National and subsequently an Oscar-winning film), and two series of the monologs Talking Heads. His collection of diary entries, essays and reviews, Writing Home, was Book of the Year in 1994. Alan Bennett has made many recordings for the BBC, including The Lady in the Van, which he adapted for the stage and the cinema. His play The History Boys received six Tony Awards, and was adapted for the cinema that same year. Among Alan Bennett's more recent work are the stage plays The Habit of Art, People, and Cocktail Sticks, and the novella Smut.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780573016639
ISBN 10	0573016631
Title	Kafka's Dick
Author	Alan Bennett
Series	Acting Edition S
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Samuel French Ltd
Year published	1987-11-01
Number of pages	64
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable