Staging Kafka’s Ape in China

Sporting lush hair and a wild beard, the actor has a pronounced hunchback that submerges his neck under his shoulders, giving himself the form of a primate.

The moment Red Peter, in a black suit with a red bow tie, arrives on the bare, dim stage, his every movement – from crawling to eyebrows scrunching to handshaking with audience members, portrays a creature trapped between apehood and humanity.

Dragging his right leg, the result of being shot in the hip when he was captured, Red Peter gushes about his anger and anguish of being captured and imprisoned, his epiphany of acquiring human behavior and language to seek a way out, and his disappointment and displacement in the human society.

Red Peter also breaks the fourth wall from time to time by interacting with the audience in a fun manner, such as shaking hands, trying to catch their lice, and asking for cigarettes. Each instance causes the audience to burst into peals of laughter.

Li Tengfei's impressive performance of Red Peter is no easy feat.