It cries out to be presented not as horrible but as horrifically funny. But the only sense of humor here seems to belong to set designer John Conklin , whose machine is a Rube Goldberg contraption shrouded in a yellow shower curtain. It's like watching an Amnesty International commercial. Amnesty International is good.
Torture is bad.
But Kafka understood the power of comedy to convey grim subjects the way sobriety often can't, a lesson Akalaitis and her team would do well to learn. But the inclusion of both interpretations makes the evening seem less complex than confused. In that one moment, she somehow manages to knit the individual and political halves of the evening together in a way nothing else ever does. Glass' reputation notwithstanding, the most accessible part of the work is the score. It may well be worth re-hearing.