The Trial: a stage adaptation by Peter Weiss, in translation

In 1974, while still working on his masterpiece The Aesthetics of Resistance, Peter Weiss was invited by Ingmar Bergman to write a stage adaptation of Kafka's novel, The Trial. Bergman expected a "bold experiment," but Weiss, an admirer of Kafka's work since childhood, stuck doggedly to the book, though he could not resist including his own politically charged reading. The result was a meticulous adaptation, with great care taken to preserve many of the key ideas and passages from the novel, but with noticeable additions, compiled from unfinished scenes and other Kafka materials, changed to make the ideological point. Until now, this play has not been available in English; my translation is (as far as I am aware) the first. Included is a commentary on the structure and dynamics of the work, and how I chose to translate the more difficult parts of that structure.