Author: Christopher

After its abandonment in the bedroom, the beetle dies a painful and lonely death. The family, by comparison, continues on.

We hear for the second time, ‘The Protecting Veil’ by John Tavener.Greta is playing. The family respond – they are drawn to the music and move their chairs around her. They move to the table to eat a Christmas meal (these are both impressions of what the music means to Gregor – music from his past life – from yesterday).

Gregor is drawn to the music. He enters the room.

As he does so, there is a knock at the door. The lodgers have returned – they have changed their minds. Gregor is concealed behind the chairs but the lodgers see him. They are disgusted and leave, promising that they will report what they have seen to the authorities. 

The performers are in three groups: Gregor making noises; The family receiving the visitors; the lodgers. There is a knock at the door. Four lodgers have arrived to see the rooms that are for rent.They are interested but the smell and the noises from the room put them off.

[See previous improvisation]

Its dinner time, and Greta enters Gregor’s room with a plate of leftovers to find he has not been eating.

The door is left open and the beetle ventures out of its room for the first time – to devastating results:

There is a loud knocking at the door. (One of the pieces of Gregor has now become his employer.)The employer is standing in front of the door to the flat. He is impatient. He knocks again.There is confusion and panic inside. Mr Samsa looks through the peep-hole as he did before.

This scene then crosses to a flash-back to memories of moments in Gregor’s life.

Gregor’s boss arrives again offering a prayer for Gregor.

By the end of the scene, there is one huge beetle, trapped in Gregor’s room – In real time, the family become aware of him. They are disgusted. Mr Samsa raises his hand to strike Gregor. Mrs Samsa stays his hand. They all stand and move to the other side of the table, paralysed by shock and fear

The First Scene: Gregor is absent and there is a knock at the door.

Gregor’s life and past, vital, place in the family is revealed:

The group improvised around the following key questions in a scene where the family finally remove all Gregor’s human items from the room and lock the beetle in the room for the last time.

The groups took three different roles, altering the perspective as a result (notably, different characters chose different items to remove and responded differently to them)

The Father:

The Mother:

The Sister, Greta:

All three characters combined: