The Trial

Franz Kafka’s nightmarish world of accusation and authority finds a thrilling new voice with Lost and Found Opera.

Phillip Glass’ hypnotic score coils around Josef K, arrested on his 30th birthday for an unnamed crime and swept through a carnival of clerks, courts and witnesses. Oscar-winning dramatist Christopher Hampton’s razor-sharp libretto lets a stellar cast slip between roles, while the West Australian Symphony Orchestra drives the drama with propulsive clarity. 

Directed by Melissa Cantwell, this stark bureaucratic dystopia crackles with Kafka’s black comedy, while conductor Mark Coughlan shapes the music’s luminous repetitions into waves of suspense, tenderness and bitter irony. 

Your journey takes you into the maze of a forgotten office space, echoing the disorientation of Josef K’s passage into the corridors of power. The Trial resonates uncannily with our times – where bureaucracy blurs into fate and the question ‘What have I done?’ reverberates long after the final chord.