Week 26/2026: The Trial
Week of 22 June 2026
If you’ve been following me for a while you might know I signed up for acting classes a couple of years ago. My current drama school has mid-year and end of year performances for all its classes.
That’s ten classes learning, rehearsing and performing plays over ten weeks, culminating in one day of performances.
It’s wild!
This post is wholly researched and written by me, a human. I will always bring you my stories in my real human voice. I do not use generative artificial intelligence (AI) in my writing. If there are any em dashes in this piece, I put them there. I do not consent to have my work used for training AI.
The Trial by Franz Kafka
At the end of last term my class looked at a couple of different options and we ended up deciding on an Australian re-interpretation of Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial. As I understand it, Kafka wrote the novel in 1914 but never finished it. Kafka left instructions for his friend to destroy his incomplete works when he died in 1924, but his friend didn’t do this. Instead, he edited it and had it published in 1925.
I remember reading the novel several years ago (2019 to be exact, thanks, reading list) and finding it rather odd and disturbing. Now, I’m no expert in early 20th century literature and haven’t read any other works by Kafka (and have no idea why I even decided to read this), but it seems to me that “rather odd and disturbing” is a description that could be applied to most of his writing.
Anyway, it’s the story of a man called Josef K, a bank employee, who gets arrested for no apparent reason and undergoes a series of confusing and inexplicable encounters with bureaucracy and the justice system. It doesn’t end well for him but there’s never an explanation of why. (If you’d like an interesting take on it, the podcast Save Me From My Shelf has a great conversation about it.)
The Trial 2019
Our play was an adaptation by Queensland playwright Jason Klarwein in 2019, updated and set in Australia, with references to AirBnB, Clive Palmer, Facebook and Married at First Sight, among other things. It had a lot of roles, which was great because we all got to play more than one character, apart from the character Josefine K, who was played by two people because it was such a huge role.
My main role was an information officer at a detention centre, which I chose because they had the line “We’re very friendly,” and that will only make sense to Kramstable. I also got to talk about the dismal architecture of the facility. My secondary role was a photographer’s assistant who kept getting in the way and saying the wrong thing and I LOVED playing that role.
I also got the role of a magistrate after one of my classmates had to leave early in the term. This was notable because it had a speech that, after listening to the podcast I mentioned, I realised was a direct quote from the (Penguin edition of the English translation of the) novel, so I felt like I had to get that 100 per cent correct. (It’s on page 38.) No pressure!
As the magistrate, I had to flick through a large book, and on the way to our dress rehearsal I thought that given the absurdity of the entire play, it would be kind of silly for the book to be the actual novel. I went into Cracked and Spineless on the way to the rehearsal and it turns out they’d just put the book on the shelf half an hour before. What perfect timing!
I don’t know if anyone actually noticed though!
The show
We did the show on Sunday after an in-class dress rehearsal on Tuesday and a rehearsal in the theatre on Friday.
This is my fourth show with the drama school and my sixth since I started acting classes in 2023, and it felt different. I didn’t feel rushed and anxious and I was a lot calmer than I had been in previous shows. I don’t know if it was because I knew the lines better, if I’m becoming used to being in front of an audience or if it was because I simply had a lot of time on stage to get used to the space before I actually had to say anything. I feel that played a big part in calming me. I also did some work with my Alexander Technique teacher Penny, which helped me get into my main character better and kept me grounded.
As always, it was over so very quickly, even though the play went for around 75 minutes. I got though six costume changes, one of which was on stage, and one of which was walking off one scene and straight back on to the next scene. And I only got stuck in the curtains once … how that didn’t throw me, I don’t know.
And despite the play’s gruesome subject matter, it was good fun and I enjoyed being a part of it. Especially the photographer’s assistant role, which was some light-hearted relief in amongst my serious roles. It’s the first show I’ve done with this particular class, even though most of the other actors were in my class last year. It was great working with everyone and seeing people take on some really challenging roles, and Andrew, our director, and his team did an amazing job putting the performance weekend together. I’m looking forward to the next six months in class.
Habit tracker
- 15 minutes morning exercise sequence (7 days): 2/7
- Walk (7 days): 1/7
- 15 minutes writing (7 days): 0/7
- 9.30 shutdown (5 days): 3/5
Physio exercises
- Calf exercise (7 days): 7/7
- Hip exercise (5 days): 2/5
- Bridge (5 days): 4/5
- Squats (5 days): 4/5
Summary of the week
The best thing
Performing in the theatre.
I also went to the Victorian State Ballet’s performance of Aladdin at the Theatre Royal, which was lovely.
This week I learned
I got some liquid eyeliner to try and do some eye makeup for the play and I watched a couple of YouTube tutorials on how to apply it and it is NOT as easy as they make it look.
It didn’t really matter because we had to give ourselves massive black eyes, so any imperfections were easily covered.
I also learned that in the UK, section 28 of the Local Government Act was enacted in May 1988. It was brought in to “prohibit the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities” (councils, including schools). This included “[promoting] the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”. It was partly inspired by a 1983 story book called Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin, which aimed to give children information about different types of family relationships. It was repealed in 2003 but not before a lot of damage had been done to people affected. This episode of Betwixt The Sheets talks about the effects it had on some LGBTQA+ people in the UK at the time.
This week I noticed
Sunrise over Coles.
Someone has googly-eyed Rodney Croome (on the signal box in Macquarie Street outside the Town Hall).
0 Murray Street.
Saturday morning’s bus driver was the driver featured in the Metro employment posters.
The people in the ads are real people!
What’s making me think?
According to an article in the Mercury this week, “Two in three Australians would happily buy imperfect looking produce to save money,” and “71 per cent of people are bothered that perfectly edible fruit and vegetables are going to waste based on looks alone”. What is the other 29 per cent thinking that they would chuck food out because it doesn’t look great?
Reading Sarah Wilson’s book I Eat the Stars and I got to the chapter called “Post-Blame” about forgiving people and moving past hating all the humans.
I am resisting what Sarah is saying here with every fibre of my being, which means it’s something I’m going to have to work on. I’m going to read the chapter again … and again ….
Reading
- She’s Worth the Risk by Jen Morris
- I Eat The Stars by Sarah Wilson
- The Rose Field by Philip Pullman
- Snake Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta & Megan Kelleher
Listening
- Save Me From My Shelf
- Betwixt The Sheets
- Gottfried Finger: The complete music for viola da gamba solo by Petr Wagner
Watching
- Ground Up
- Doctor Who ‘The Awakening’
About The Author
