SPOOKY ACTION THEATER PRESENTS EAST-COAST PREMIERE OF A ‘METAPHYSICAL MIND-BENDER’

SOMETIMES FATE IS LIKE A SANDSTORM THAT KEEPS CHANGING DIRECTIONS

Spooky Action Theater continues its ninth season with Kafka on the Shore, adapted from the book written by “one of Japan’s most exciting writers,” Haruki Murakami.. Frank Galati, best known for his adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath, first brought Murakami’s astonishing, dream-engendered story to the stage at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, where Galati is an ensemble member. Now Galati’s masterful adaptation has been released for a second professional production, at Spooky Action theater in Washington.

Before it is too late, fifteen year-old Kafka Tamura (his self-chosen name loosely translates as “crow” in Czech) escapes his home in Tokyo and a dangerous father. Kafka moves through contemporary Japan and at the same time through a world of spirits that echo the ghostly Japan of the past, a world that resonates surprisingly with the primal world of dreams and subconscious reality.

Director Rebecca Holderness, whose Einstein’s Dreams was a sell-out at Spooky Action in 2010, returns from the University of Wisconsin to create the current production. The show features ten exceptional Asian-American actors along side two non-Asian colleagues, all Washington based. The production design team includes Brooke Robbins for set, Zachary Dalton for lights and David Crandall for sound.