Review: Pathos and mirth of Kafka’s Ape, physically and emotionally charged theatre

Kafka’s Ape, an adaption of Franz Kafka’s short story, A Report to an Academy was first staged in South Africa in 2015 in independent venues. The play, celebrating ten years on the boards is performed by Tony Bonani Miyambo and directed by Phala O Phala. After the preview performance in the Baxter Studio in Cape Town, March 26, in a Q&A, Miyambo and Phala told the captivated audience that for the first four years, South African audiences were generally nonplussed. After touring the show internationally to festivals and receiving acclaim and rave reviews, they began to get noticed in their home country. This is the first season at the Baxter of this legendary piece of physical comedy by the extraordinary Tony Miyambo.

I saw the play long long ago. I have no idea when it was but I know I saw it at Alexander Bar. The theatre closed prior to the pandemic. I was blown away by the physicality of Tony Miyambo’s performance as he manifested the ape, Red Peter who is now living as a human and makes his impassioned report to an Academy of professionals at The Species of the World Conference, titled, What’s the Identity of an Evolving Man.

Watching in the Baxter 2025, I was once again caught up in Red Peter in his quest to make sense of his memories and calibrate his current identity. In 2025, Red Peter is older and sadder but with more of a sense of humour than I recall, as he presents his lecture. The pathos, mirth and emotion has been heightened in this physically driven piece of theatre.

Time does impact on how we evolve. In the Q&A, it was noted that Miyambo is older and so is Red Peter. Red is fatigued from travelling, from presenting his lecture and this is reflected in the performance by Miyambo, the actor. For example, Miyambo dons ankle guards protectors, not needed 10 years ago. See: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMB5juNub/

Miyambo’s brilliant use of improv brings in a light touch which is a much needed release from the tragic narrative. During the performance, a mobile phone went off. Red Peter retorted: “Are you finished now”, blithely pointing to the phone owner. We laughed a lot, despite the story. Do not sit in the front row if you want to avoid Red Peter’s withering gaze and ripostes.

Red Peter was caught in a jungle, wounded (that’s why he is called Red Peter, marked by blood). In order to survive, he had to become a human and in that process most of his memory was wiped out. He pleads with us that we have all have to make choices in order to survive. Freedom is overrated, he muses: “I did not want freedom – only a way out – the right to life”. What is freedom? “One wants a way out, even if it is an illusion”.

He suggests that people tend to be disappointed by what freedom brings. We make choices along the way to survive. Red Peter chose the Music Hall over the Zoo and gets to perform, every night for us – to us..

Freedom pings profoundly in relation to post-Apartheid South Africa and universally. We trade one cage for another. The pain of being an outsider is very much in Red Peter’s mind. We are sized up as ‘other’, as oddities, as outsiders.

Red Peter tells us that he currently resides in Jozi. He used to reside in the Eastern Cape. He cleans his hands with hand sanitizer, a clear reference to Covid and there are also reference to current wars being fought. The notion of ‘freedom’ dangles as a leitmotif through the play. How much have us humans evolved?  

Red Peter has travelled the world and during his peregrinations, a lot has seeped in to his performance. Watch the video here in which Miyambo and Phala Phala talk about how the play has absorbed aspects of what they have encountered in the world, as they have toured the play. Here is link: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMBUWqEqE/

Much of Kafka’s Ape is expressed through physical theatre, with the human/primate creature shape shifting between human and primate. Red Peter’s rasping voice – oh that voice is a howl and lament. I loved the shadows on a wall of the theatre – projecting a double image of Red Peter– perhaps the two sides – animal and human.

Don’t miss, Kafka’s Ape, an iconic and brilliant piece of South African physical theatre, with the legendary Tony Miyambo.

❇ Featured image: Tony Miyambo in Kafka’s Ape. Pic: Supplied.