Report to an Academy

3rd – 6th August 2024

“Freedom was not what I wanted, only a way out”. So says Red Peter, the narrator of the short story, A Report to an Academy, which of all of Kafka’s works is surely the one crying out the loudest for adaptation for the stage. It opens, in the Willa and Edwin Muir translation, with the lines, “Honored members of the Academy! You have done me the honor of inviting me to give your academy an account of the life I formerly led as an ape”. In the theatre, we can experience the delivery of this report firsthand. A speaker, in this case Robert McNamara under the direction of Gabriele Jakobi, delivers his monologue to us the audience, who assume the silent role of the academy’s delegation.

Captured by a hunting expedition in West Africa, Red Peter was held in a cage too low for him to stand up in and too narrow to sit down in. He was to endure these conditions throughout a long voyage to Europe, sobbing, scratching painfully at fleas, and beating his head against the wooden panel that formed one side of the cage. Realising that his captors were steadfast in their belief that he was now exactly where an ape should be, and even admitting that from a human perspective he was inclined to agree, Red Peter concluded there was only one way out of his predicament: “I had to stop being an ape”.

“McNamara’s performance is assured and adroit. He delivers his lines in tones ranging from the formal to the playful”

Adopting a refined sense of patience and calm, he set about studying and imitating his human captors. He is at pains to explain that he saw nothing of great attraction in human beings, that he imitated them simply because he thought it might lead to “a way out”. If he had wanted freedom, he would have preferred to bite his way through the bars of his cage, jump into the sea and drown. Red Peter was not looking for freedom, but rather a way to live. He watched the crew and taught himself to do what they did, starting with spitting, smoking and drinking. One day, he broke into speech.

On arrival in Europe, Red Peter tells us he was faced with the choice between life in a zoo or life as an entertainer in variety shows. He chose the latter and took on a range of teachers to further his education, ultimately achieving “the cultural level of an average European”. He now performs most evenings and attends banquets, social gatherings and scientific receptions. He has a chimpanzee companion who is nothing more than a sex toy to him. Beyond that he detests her: “she has the insane look of the bewildered half-broken animal in her eye; no one else sees it but I do, and I cannot bear it”.

What does it mean to have an identity? Is freedom possible or desirable? What are our responsibilities to each other, to the animal kingdom, and to the wider natural world? These are the questions that A Report to an Academy poses. McNamara’s performance is assured and adroit. He delivers his lines in tones ranging from the formal to the playful. He bows as we might expect an ape would, one arm hanging low, the hand swinging gently back and forth. We sit and watch, and must remember that we are playing a part in the story too, that of the academy that has asked Red Peter for his report. Why have we done so? What will we do now that he has told us his story? Kafka gives us no information about what the academy is or does. Finally then, we are faced with a question that is simple to ask but much harder to answer: who are we?

Marc Chamberlain