’Have you been to a local authority lately?' Kafka’s 'Trial' hits home in Prague

“Is it really that absurd?”

That’s the question director Martin Murín found himself asking as he began adapting Franz Kafka’s The Trial for his theater troupe Drama Queens.

The new English-language production of the Prague-born writers’ famously opaque and unsettling novel is coming to Prague’s La Fabrika theater for a limited run beginning next week.

For those who feel Kafka has already been explored from every angle, Drama Queen’s take, running from June 14–17 offers a fresh shift: emotional clarity that slices through the bureaucratic fog of Kafka’s grey world.

The Drama Queens, founded while Murín was at university in 2007, began as a creative way to help people learn English through theater. But the English used is anything but simplified; instead, emotional context lies at the heart of the group’s mission.

“Every word we learn was once new,” Murín says. “We forget that. Theater helps us connect language to emotion. It gives words a shape, a feeling, a context.”

What began as an educational tool has evolved into a respected performance troupe staging large-scale, year-long productions for mixed Czech and international audiences. After outgrowing smaller venues, the team has performed at La Fabrika for the past seven or eight years.

“We don’t make a living from this—but the work is far from amateurish,” Murín explains. “We put our hearts into it. Everyone onstage cares not just about their role but about the entire production.”

Past shows have included Les Misérables for which Murín built a full two-floor house as part of the set. This time around, The Trial will use minimalism to maximal effect. “I imagined a gray world where everyone and everything is gray,” says Murín. “We’re playing with light and selective color to suggest meaning.”

The choice of Kafka wasn’t made solely because of the writer’s local connections, though Murín acknowledges that the name recognition helps.

“When you do something from a writer no one knows, it’s much harder to bring people in. Kafka, of course, carries weight. But it’s more than that—The Trial speaks to the times we’re in. This idea of circular definitions, of being arrested because you’re under arrest. That strange logic—unfortunately, it doesn’t feel so strange anymore.”

Murín sees Kafka’s labyrinthine logic as disturbingly familiar.

“Is it really so different from our world?” he asks. “Have you been to any of the local authorities? In the 21st century, where the internet’s not an option and you have to file everything three times, only to be told you used the wrong form?”

Drama Queens is an international ensemble, with actors from as far as Ecuador, Greece, and the UK, including seasoned actor Kevin Clarke.

Their audiences are equally mixed, with performances drawing expats, locals, and long-time supporters alike. “We don’t know exactly who will show up,” says Murín, “but we always hope to connect.”

As for what’s next? Murín hints at a return of last year’s Animal Farm, another sharply relevant adaptation. “Scripts like that give you freedom,” he says. “They speak loudly these days.”

Kafka would likely agree.