The Hunter Gracchus

By Franz Kafka

Presented by Grusomhtens Teater & ISSHI-ZA

‘The Hunter Gracchus’ had its world premiere at Theatre Tram in Tokyo on the 5th of October 2023 followed by its norwegian premiere at Grusomhetens Teater (The Theatre of Cruelty) in Oslo on the 20th October 2023

On the 6th of April 1917, Franz Kafka notes: 

“Today, in a little harbour, there lay a strange bark. A clumsy old craft, relatively low and very broad, as filthy as if it had been swamped with bilge water; the masts incomprehensibly tall; wrinkled, coarse, yellowish-brown sails.


A workman sat down beside me on the harbour wall. “Whose ship is that?” I asked. “It puts in every two or three years,” said the man, “and belongs to the hunter Gracchus.””


Japanese performative traditions and European modernism collide as Grusomhetens Teater and the 3rd generation of The Marionette Troupe of Japan ISSHI-ZA from Tokyo collaborate on the production ‘The Hunter Gracchus’.

With a background in classical marionette techniques the Japanese theatre director Isshi Youki (b. 1948) has created a modern expression. For several years, ISSHI-ZA has initiated collaborations with experimental theatres and directors across borders. The company visited Black Box stage in Oslo in the early 1980s with Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.” This time, they are collaborating with Grusomhetens Teater in a staged adaptation of Kafka’s enigmatic short story from 1917.

Kafka’s precise prose operates between dream and hallucination, and his critique of capitalism within mazes of power remains relevant, perhaps more than ever. Although his stories often seem dystopian on the outside, there is always room for opportunities and light, as with the dead hunter Gracchus who quietly docks in the small town of Riva by Lake Garda in the opening tableau, a place where the author himself had spent many summers. The scenario culminates in a dialogue between the mayor of Riva and Gracchus, where the hunter confesses that he never quite reached the transformation that is death, but remains stuck in the earthly on a “boat without a helm—it journeys with the wind which blows in the deepest regions of death.”. 

Norwegian Premiere Grusomhetens Teater. Oslo 20. October 2023. Photography Magnus Skrede.

Japan Premiere Theater Tram in Tokyo 5. October 2023. Photography Makoto Onozuka.