THE last in Sand and Bricks' Metamorphosis trilogy, based on Franz Kafka's story about a man who wakes up to find that he has turned into a beetle, Metamorphosis 95 is more about the effect the change has on his family than the insect-man himself.
Similar to Kafka's Gregor, Mr K wakes up one morning to find that he has turned into a worm. His mother shouts for him to wake up, his father bangs on his door, both afraid that he will miss his train to work.
When he doesn't show for some days, his company sends three colleagues to investigate. Because Mr K is the sole breadwinner of the family, his retreat into his cocoon deals a heavy blow to the family.
But the situation shakes the family out of their complacency to the extent that his father finds a job, and his mother discovers a hidden talent for currency speculation.
Sister Mei Mei stirs to learn some foreign languages in the hope of travelling, and even his mentally retarded younger brother is able to find redemption of sorts by trying to be the contemporary Noah and saving mankind.
Sand and Bricks put up its first version of Metamorphosis in 1988 and the second in 1994, and like its predecessors and in true Kafka form, the plays have been wide open to interpretation.
Metamorphosis 95 switches the focus from the insect-man to his increasingly dissatisfied sister Mei Mei, who begins to think that she can finally find the strength to fight the changes that are slowly taking over her life: she also feels she is going through a metamorphosis and will turn into a butterfly.
