An Ordinary Day in the Life of the Dancer Gregor Samsa @ Theatre YOUNG

What if Kafka's insect became a dancer?

This acclaimed physical theatre piece reimagines The Metamorphosis for the performance-obsessed age.

Lorenzo Gleijeses portrays Gregor Samsa, a 40-year-old dancer on the eve of his most important debut.

Trapped in a relentless pursuit of machine-like perfection, he can no longer distinguish rehearsal from reality, work from life, progress from collapse.

His frantic, twisted body—both unsettling and heartbreaking—shares the stage with a cleaning robot, his mechanical alter-ego.

Directed by legendary theatre innovator Eugenio Barba (founder of Odin Teatret) and co-created with Gleijeses and Julia Varley, this 75-minute, subtitle-aided performance weaves three strands: Kafka's own family anguish, the novelist's fictional creature, and a contemporary artist spiraling into his own cocoon—not of chitin, but of dreams, absurdity, and solitude.

Performed in Italian, it is less an allegory of transformation than a mirror: in chasing perfection, do we become our first victims?

Language: Italian with English and Chinese surtitles

Fri & Sat June 12 & 13, 7.30pm

Sun June 14, 2pm & 7.30pm

RMB100-380

Theatre YOUNG, 1155 Kongjiang Lu, Yangpu District 上海市杨浦区控江路1155号

Source: ThatsShanghai