What if the solution to another Monday morning was not a better work-life balance, a new productivity system or another coffee, but becoming a monkey?
That is the deliberately absurd starting point for Czerwony Piotruś (Red Peter), a new theatre production coming to Studio Scena Robocza on ul. Wroniecka 6 in Poznań on 3 and 4 October 2026.
Inspired by Franz Kafka’s A Report to an Academy, the performance takes the story of a monkey who learns to behave like a human and turns it towards the routines, expectations and exhaustion of contemporary life.
The office is familiar territory. Monday arrives, Friday becomes something to work towards, and the same conversations happen beside the coffee machine. Czerwony Piotruś asks what happens when the desire to escape that cycle becomes stronger than the desire to fit into it.
From Kafka’s monkey to the modern workplace
Kafka’s original story centres on Red Peter, an ape who has been captured and learns human behaviour as a means of survival. He observes, copies and performs what is expected of him until he can convincingly present himself as human.
The production uses that transformation as a starting point for looking at a very different kind of captivity.
For many people, fitting in means learning the unwritten rules of workplaces and social life: how to dress, how to speak, how to behave and which parts of ourselves are acceptable in public. For queer people, that process of observation and performance can carry another layer.
See more: Poznań Design Festival 2026 Turns Its Attention to Longevity
Source and image credit: Scena Robocza