Desert Ensemble Theatre's production of 'Kafka's Joke' covers a dying wish and a literary legacy

Your best friend — a talented writer — is dying. One of his last requests is that you burn his unpublished manuscripts. But you believe that your friend is a genius. What should you do?

That was the dilemma facing Max Brod, the best friend of author Franz Kafka, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature.

Their story will come to life as Desert Ensemble Theatre presents the world premiere of "Kafka's Joke" by Rich Rubin. The production is directed by DET Artistic Director Jerome Elliott Moskowitz.

"It is a comprehensive look at a fascinating history that started after Franz Kafka died," said Moskowitz. "He was a posthumous celebrity who did not want to be famous."

Describing the play as a "rich historical dramedy," Moskowitz added, "You do not know what's coming around the next turn."

Who was Franz Kafka?

Born in 1883 in Prague (in what was then Czechoslovakia), Franz Kafka has been described as a Czech writer of Jewish heritage who wrote in German. He blended reality and fantasy to create works about anxiety and alienation.

In "The Trial," Kafka tells the story of a bank clerk who is put on trial but cannot find out what his offense is – or who his prosecutors are. In "The Metamorphosis," an overworked salesman wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a huge insect.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes "Kafkaesque" as "having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality."

A number of websites are devoted to "Kafka jokes": humor that reflects the absurdist situations that are the hallmark of his writing.

A lengthy court fight over a man who wanted to be forgotten

After Franz Kafka's death in 1924, Max Brod rejected his friend's request and kept Kafka's manuscripts.

When the Nazis invaded Prague in 1939, Brod fled on the last train to leave the city before the Czech border was closed. He carried Kafka's papers in a suitcase.

Max Brod and his wife ultimately settled in Tel Aviv. Nearly 30 years later, when Brod died in Israel, he bequeathed his archive to his secretary, Esther Hoffe. But, in a 1961 will, Brod had also left instructions that his literary estate should be given to the library of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the municipal library in Tel Aviv or another organization in Israel or abroad.

That didn't happen.

After Hoffe's death in 2007, her daughters argued that they had legally inherited the documents, sparking an extended court fight that ultimately made its way to Israel's Supreme Court.

Playwright Rich Rubin remembers reading news accounts about that court case. They inspired him to learn more about the true story of Franz Kafka and Max Brod. After completing his research, it took him just a few months, he said, to write the play.

The twists and turns in the battle over Kafka's work reflect what Rubin calls the three pillars of the story: art, cultural identity, and international politics.

And Rubin noted what he called "multiple levels of absurdity" that, 100 years after Kafka's death, people were still fighting over the legacy of a man "who most of all, wanted to be forgotten."

"Reading that article, and then subsequent reading the real-life scenario on which my play is based, I'm not even sure what words to use except for bizarre, zany and, most of all, Kafkaesque," he said.

Who owns art?

While artists sometimes admit that they are critical of their own work, why did Frank Kafka feel as he did?

"A sense of his personality has become part of our popular culture," said Rubin. "This person who's very, very sensitive and kind of neurotic and funny, but also kind of sad and overwhelmed and sharp enough to realize he's being overwhelmed."

To Rubin, the play asks important questions.

"It addresses the question of who owns art," he said. "Who owns an artist's legacy in general? In this case, specifically, who owns Franz Kafka's legacy? Is it a person? Is it a country? If it is a country, which country is it and why?"

As a playwright, Rubin faced the additional challenge of making "this very complicated story both comprehensible to an audience and, even more important, very entertaining."

The play has received multiple honors. "Kafka's Joke" was a finalist in the 2020 Woodward International Playwriting Prize and a semifinalist in the 2021 Jewish Plays Project. In 2021, it also received a special award from the Jewish Theatre of Warsaw as part of the Szymon Szurmiej Contemporary Jewish Drama International Competition.

A world premiere in a season of 'West Coast Originals'

"Kafka's Joke" is part of DET's season of "West Coast Originals": works by West Coast playwrights. It is DET's fourth world premiere since early 2020.

Moskowitz noted that DET offers "contemporary work that deserves wider viewing that has not necessarily been seen off-Broadway or off-off-Broadway, but that we feel deserves a wider audience that touches on themes that are relevant to our daily lives."

Some might find it ironic that a play about a man who wanted his work to be destroyed is being staged by a company dedicated to supporting and showcasing artists.

According to Moskowitz, DET Founder Tony Padilla created the company to "give local theater practitioners the opportunity to expand their craft, whether that was onstage or offstage via acting, directing, set design, technical theater. He really wanted to create a collaborative body."

As part of that collaborative body, DET has an active high school theater internship and scholarship program.

"This season, our sound designer, projection and effects designer and stage manager are all graduates of our internship program, now working with us professionally," said Moskowitz.

Timing is everything

While DET has been preparing to present "Kafka's Joke," a new, unabridged version of Kafka's diaries has just been published.

"The translator came out with a new unedited version of Kafka's diaries, putting back in all of the parts that Max Brod took out," Moskowitz noted. "Because the Kafka that Max Brod gave us was very much sanitized and cleaned up. And the real Kafka was much deeper and even more complex than we find in Brod's translations."

Rich Rubin finds the timing of the new book remarkable.

"It shows you how current this is," he said. "It is just wild to think about the play having the premiere in early March and this book coming out of the new version of Kafka's diaries just about 100 years after he died. That just shows how odd, how bizarre all of this is."

Did Max Brod do the right thing?

"Kafka's Joke" features five actors — John Corr, Charles Herrera, Larry Dyekman, Melanie Blue and Jaci Davis — playing 27 characters.

A five-time Desert Star award winner, Charles Herrera portrays Max Brod. He praised what he called the "humor and humanity" of the play.

"It's such a wonderful play," he said. "It really is. It's so filled with humor. It's filled with some touching moments and it's filled with such respect, I believe, for Kafka's work."

He noted that Brod, like Kafka, was a prolific writer.

"He was trying to honor his friend's legacy," said Herrera. "But at the same time, he was also doing it for himself in a rather selfish way. And we're going to try to put a little bit of that into my character. To show that, granted, he was a really good friend but, at the same time, he had ambition."

Thinking about Max Brod's own legacy, Herrera said, "We would never have gotten to know or appreciate Kafka's work if it weren't for Max."

Herrera added: "He didn't do the right thing for his friend, but he did the right thing, I think, for the rest of the world."

If You Go

What: Desert Ensemble Theatre's production of "Kafka's Joke"

When: Fridays through Sundays: March 10-12 and 17-19. Friday performances at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday performances at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Where: Palm Springs Cultural Center, 2300 East Baristo Road, Palm Springs

Cost: $35

More info: desertensembletheatre.org

Barbara Kerr is a freelance communication specialist with a passion for writing about people, the arts and special events. Inducted into the Dayton (Ohio) Area Broadcasters Hall of Fame, she is a past chair of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) College of Fellows.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: 'Kafka's Joke' covers a dying wish, a betrayal and a literary legacy