Joseph K and the Cost of Living

This urgent, witty adaptation places Kafka's The Trial directly in the contemporary political moment.

Joseph K has a comfortable job in financial services and barely notices the growing chaos all around on the walk to work: the homelessness, the food banks, the anger, the protests, the relentless rise of the cost of living.

Joseph K has a comfortable job in financial services and barely notices the growing chaos all around on the walk to work: the homelessness, the food banks, the anger, the protests, the relentless rise of the cost of living. Until one day, K is arrested. No one will explain what the charges are, but they must be answered.

Emily White's adaptation of The Trial weaves the nightmare of arrest and injustice into a funny and physical take on Franz Kafka's classic.

The play premiered at the Swansea Grand Theatre, in a production by National Theatre Wales, in March 2023.