I went to see
Metamorphosis tonight at the
Lyric in Hammersmith. I realised quite early on that I wasn't going to enjoy it. This is always a disheartening moment at the theatre. You're watching something you're not enjoying, knowing there's nothing that's going to change to suddenly make it enjoyable and you have an hour and a half of time stretching before you and there's no way out (apart from walking out, which to me just always seems too rude). There was some nice staging and lighting and the man playing the insect clambered around very acrobatically, but I just didn't like the style of the acting and couldn't really work out what it was meant to be about.
I didn't mind too much as my brain had finally started to get into the swing of my own script about two hours before whilst I was swimming (after a week where I've been prevaricating like crazy - once again everything comes together at the most inconvenient time) and so I spent the 90 minutes half watching the insecty antics and half thinking about what was going to happen in my re-written script. Maybe one of the comedians could turn into an insect and that spoils the dynamic of the act - probably not.
The Kafka version of this story is so depressing that I also started wondering what a Hollywood comeduy version of the piece would be like. Jim Carey goes to bed and wakes up to find that he is an insect. To begin with he enjoys his new found abilities and playing tricks on people and being sick on his food, but gradually over the course of the film he realises that family and human feelings of love are more important. I love the idea of calling it Jim Carey's "Metamorphosis" but I think the studios would insist on calling it "Morphed".
I started that idea as an hilarious parody of the Hollywood studio system, but you know I can really see that working. Don't steal my idea (even though I stole it off Kafka). I really think that could work, both as a film in its own right and as a film that satirises the vapidity of Hollywood. I am on to it. That's the next project.
But I had quite a few ideas about the project that I am working on and getting paid for so it wasn't a wasted evening. It's the first time I've been to the theatre for ages and it was a shame to see something a bit disappointing (though as a resident of the area I got my tickets for free - the Lyric do this for the first performance of every play they put on and hats off to them for that).
I had no idea what the play was meant to be about and could only view it literally - that it would be annoying to wake up and find you'd turned into an insect. But as that's not likely to happen then it wasn't too frightening a possibility. Back in Kafka's time turning into an insect would be embarrassing and the family have to hide him away, which is a problem as the insect man was the main breadwinner. But nowadays if you turned into an insect you could make a fortune selling your stories to the tabloids and going on chat shows and Big Brother's Little Brother and stuff.
I guess the story is about the world of work turning us into drones or something and that there is more to life than that - very like a Jim Carey film then. I definitely have to get on to that. I don't really want to write the script but I'd love to sell the idea. Send me your offers Hollywood. It's different than "The Fly" (not that ripping off something else would bother you) because becoming an insect won't make Jim Carey evil. He will like it and only when he realises that he is becoming distanced from his son will he want to change back. Plus it is an intellectual rape of one of the greatest literary minds in history. It works on two levels.
