Sophomore Jack Romans has been doing a lot of stretching and some yoga here and there in preparation for his lead role in St. Paul Academy and Summit School’s rendition of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Annually, Upper School theater director Eric Severson directs a one act to compete in the Minnesota State High School League One Act Play Festival, and this year, Metamorphosis “just felt right”. In addition to Severson’s always memorable One Act are multiple student-directed, noncompetitive one acts which will only be performed once.

Metamorphosis begins with the sudden and literal metamorphosis of the burnt-out traveling salesman Gregor Samsa (Romans) into a “monstrous vermin” or bug. “It’s like bam! I just woke up and I’m a bug!” senior Emily Ross, who plays Gregor’s mother Mrs. Samsa, said.

“A lot of it’s just experimenting and seeing what looks inhuman… very jagged movements and seeing in what ways I can contort my body,” Romans said. While Romans’ attention-capturing embodiment of a bug is meaningful in all of it’s absurdity, Metamorphosis offers the viewer plenty to think about on a more subliminal level.

Originally a short story, Metamorphosis is about losing one’s identity through work that is monotonous and, more importantly, the freedom associated with breaking free from the banality of life and acknowledging repressed desires. In many ways, Gregor’s family represents the tired existence he has escaped.

In Metamorphosis, however, it’s hard to tell whether Samsa’s buggy existence is more absurd than his family’s mechanized, robotic one. This strange dichotomy is what propels the story forward and creates an illusion of normality: because everyone’s existence is more or less absurd, absurdity is, to some extent, able to hide under the guise of normalcy.

Adapting the story for the stage while preserving Kafka’s intended meanings has been a challenge which Severson has met with enthusiasm gusto. In the past, his pushing of the envelope in the MSHSL One Act competition has received a variety of responses. However, since receiving high honors for last year’s one act The Yellow Wallpaper, an emphatically feminist play, Severson has decided to continue on this trajectory by putting on the absurdist and bizarre Metamorphosis.

From an acting perspective, Severson has taken a highly mechanized, choreographed route. The Samsa family is to move and speak robotically, a metaphor for industrialization and its subsequent effects on daily human life. Severson’s approach to direction has evolved in his desire to create a perfectly imperfect vignette of the Samsa family.

“This rehearsal process has been different than other shows because of how precise everything has to be. Instead of jumping around and going through things fast, we are moving much more slowly. Each moment is more perfect than it would be for any other show,” Romans said. “If we can make sure that everything falls into place, these messages get thrown across in pretty powerful ways,” he said.

In the character of Gregor Samsa, there is some respite amidst the drawling depiction of everyday life. Gregor is, in essence, an inhuman, bestial, creature. From one angle, this seems liberating and refreshing–a clear contradiction to his family’s way of life. From a different angle, Gregor’s reduction to a bug depreciates his worth as a human being and ultimately, isolates him from society.

Kafka may very well be asking society a question to which he has no answer: how does one reject propriety without being reduced to and squashed like a metaphorical bug? Like this question, there are many more. Preserving the gravity of Kafka’s thoughts that tend to lurk behind the absurdist facades he created, is a challenging project in and of itself.

From a visual perspective, Severson’s vision is one of minimalistic, industrial, iciness. Severson intends for the staged version of Metamorphosis to convey the dismal, monotonous gloominess of everyday life. The scaffolding walls of Gregor’s room will form a cage-like structure for Gregor to climb as a bug would.

Shadows and silhouettes will be employed to create an heir of mystery as well as to convey what cannot exist in real life. “I can’t spawn fifty more legs, so shadows will help to create those. Silhouettes are what allow for this kind of ridiculous story to portray the powerful messages it holds,” Romans said.

While Severson’s artistic vision for Metamorphosis is very clear and intentional, he also believes that the nature of the story itself allows for numerous interpretations. “I want for people to see the show and take what they will from it,” he said. This year, he hopes his show impacts viewers in a more subtle, understated manner. Just as last year’s The Yellow Wallpaper concerned the glaring illness of a society, so does Metamorphosis. One can’t help but leaving Metamorphosis thinking “monotony is the malady of our time”.

Metamorphosis previewed on Jan. 31 in the Sarah Converse auditorium. It competed for the first time, winning first place in subsections, on Feb. 1 in Braham. Due to the cold weather and missed days of school, student-directed one acts premiered a week later on Feb. 8 at in the Sarah Converse Auditorium.

Update: The cast and crew of Metamorphosis placed second at sections in the Minnesota State High School League One Act Play competition.