The Trial of Josie K review – kidding around with Kafka

Kafka never let Josef K have birthday cake for breakfast – the first indignity in The Trial is not getting his morning meal from the cook. But 12-year-old Josie K is devouring a slice when she’s visited by a mysterious man in a suit in Katie Hims’ play for children (nine and over) which explores Kafka’s themes of guilt, shame and responsibility.

It is very much inspired by, rather than directly adapted from, the classic novel. This three-hander takes Josie on a labyrinthine journey but has no lawyers, priest or appearance from the fearsome thrasher and there’s no butcher’s knife finale.

Hims draws on Kafka’s surreal humour while evoking a Lewis Carroll world of topsy-turvy absurdity with puzzles, tea parties and even a giant rabbit. Nkhanise Phiri – fresh from Brixton House’s Alice in Wonderland – again commands the stage with abundant charisma in the lead role.

Josie is apprehensive about attending a 9.57am meeting with the punctilious bureaucrat (Tom Moores) but at least she’ll miss double chemistry – and who knows, says her pal Becca (Jadie Rose Hobson), maybe it’s good news? Learning that she is instead to be put on trial leads Josie to question her past actions. Is this all because she made the supply teacher cry, she fears, prompting much laughter from the schoolchildren in the audience.

Short episodes alternate between Josie’s meetings with the bureaucrat and Becca, requiring regular, increasingly laborious, scene changes in Leigh Toney’s production. The writing is often sparky but not always economical enough to suit this structure and the overall effect, despite Beth Duke’s progressively urgent score, does not hurtle you through the story or create a claustrophobic atmosphere. But the central wall of Rose Revitt’s set, with drawers and cupboards in shades of beige and jade, is used with increasing impact.

Hims, who subtly acknowledges the casual misogyny in the novel, shrewdly invites us to consider the “right” ways of doing things, from preparing a scone to handling complex emotional situations. The script has less to say about hierarchy and authority but Moores’ bureaucrat powerfully captures the sentiment of Kafka’s court official who sorrowfully considers the manner in which adults are obliged to act because of their job.

The dynamic becomes that of a teacher and pupil learning lessons from each other. Despite strong individual performances, which benefit from Sundeep Saini’s astute movement direction, this mutually transformative relationship never fully convinces. But this is a typically bold Unicorn production attuned to its young audience’s sharpening sense of morality.

• At the Unicorn theatre, London, until 19 February