Writer-director Dietrich Smith takes a young German immigrant on the journey of a lifetime in his stage adaptation of Franz Kafka’s Amerika or, The Man Who Disappeared, the year’s most exhilarating theatrical adventure ride.

It’s the early 1910s, and 17-year-old Karl Rossman (Oqalile Tshetshe) is just one of millions of European immigrants arriving in the U.S. in search of The American Dream.

And things start off swimmingly enough when a chance shipboard encounter reunites young Karl with none other than his wealthy Uncle Jacob (Pat Towne), who not only takes in his nephew but hires a tutor to teach him English.

Unfortunately for Karl, a visit to Uncle Jacob’s business associate Mr. Pollunder’s (Jeremy D. Thompson) country estate goes awry when word arrives that the young German has been disinherited by his uncle for having stayed out past his 12:00 midnight curfew. (Ouch!)

And if things haven’t already started to unravel for poor Karl, they go from bad to worse when he makes the acquaintance of a couple of immigrant scoundrels, Frenchman Delamarche (Elliott Moore) and Irishman Robinson (Matthew Goodrich), who use whatever money and possessions Karl has to their own ends and leave him with nothing, not even his parents’ photo.

Worse still for poor Karl, we’re scarcely halfway through the mishaps and miseries that await him in the so-called land of opportunity.

Not having read Kafka’s novel, I can’t speak to its tone, but playwright Smith has turned what sounds like the grimmest of tales into the most delightful and entertaining of stage adaptations, mining the comedic potential of characters every bit as colorful as the ones Charles Dickens surrounded David Copperfield or Oliver Twist with.

It helps enormously that Open Fist Theatre, in association with Circle X Theatre Company, has entrusted the role of Karl to recent AMDA grad Tshetshe, so instantly likable in the part that we are rooting for the young immigrant from the get-go.

Not only that, but casting a Black South African as a presumably Aryan German only adds to Karl’s feeling of alienation and otherness, all of which makes for a breakout star turn that lights up a stage like nobody’s business no matter how dismal Karl’s life becomes.

Everyone else in the 12-actor cast plays multiple roles each, Goodrich and Moore making the strongest impressions as a couple of rapscallions of the first order as does Towne as the most jovial of evil uncles and Thompson as both an exploited ship’s stoker and the well-meaning but ineffectual Mr. Pollunder.

Add to the above Jade Santana as an adorably narcoleptic elevator boy, Tambrie Allsup as an entitled, sexually aggressive young heiress, Maria Mastroyannis as a refreshingly compassionate hotel manageress, Grace Soens as a tragically orphaned hotel worker, Emma Bruno as young single mother, and Julien Thompson as a womanizing lift boy and you’ve got one of the most versatile and hard-working casts in town.

And I still haven’t gotten to what takes Amerika into Year’s Best territory, a supremely ingenious production design highlighted by John R. Dilworth’s delightfully animated “shadow puppets” that take us up and down high-rise elevators, deep into the bowels of a ship, and more, much much more.

Frederica Nascimento’s inspired scenic design makes inventive use of drops (Elizabeth Moore is drops artist) and sliding panels, costume designer A. Jeffrey Schoenberg delivers one period-perfect outfit after another, Bruce Dickinson’s myriad props are just as spot-on, all of the above looks even more striking as lit by Gavan Wyrick, Gary Rydstrom’s invigorating sound design completes the stunning package, and because no adventure story like Karl’s would be complete without a scuffle or two, Allsup doubles as fight choreographer.

Finally, John Dimitri aces one of the toughest stage manager gigs ever with the help o stagehands Trinity Coston, Leo Hall, and Shaquille Hill.

Amerika or, The Man Who Disappeared is produced for Open Fist by Amanda Weier and for Circle X by Tim Wright. Barbara Schofield is assistant director. Nick Foran is programmer and Jacob Carty is assistant programmer. Deborah Ross-Sullivan is dialect coach. Grace Berry is assistant lighting designer. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

In these days when 90-minute two-handers seem the safest and most economical bet for theater companies aiming to stay out of the red, it takes chutzpah to stage a three-act, three-hour-long extravaganza like Amerika or, The Man Who Disappeared, but don’t let its running time scare you off. This is L.A. theater at its most creative and captivating.

Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Atwater Village.
www.openfist.org

–Steven Stanley
March 29, 2026
Photos: Thomas Alleman

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: Circle X Theatre Company, Dietrich Smith, Franz Kafka, Los Angeles Theater Review, Open Fist Theatre Company