By turns infuriating and intoxicating, Kaspar is a chaotic, inventive meditation on language and identity. The story is an abstraction of that of Kaspar Hauser, a mysterious speechless boy who appeared in a German town in 1828, after sixteen years spent alone in a dark room. He is ‘made to speak through speaking’. Inventing his own theatre syntax, a combination of clown, poetry, and sound, Austrian playwright Peter Handke allows us to listen differently and to reflect on how language is forced upon us by a society where conformism is the norm and received speech an almost tyrannical exploitation of the individual. Handke’s work has been described as ‘the most strikingly original of all post-war European writing’ by The Times. Aya theatre company makes challenging, fresh and unusual theatre in non-traditional spaces.

* The run of this play has been extended until 12 February 2011. To book tickets contact the Southwark Playhouse.

Quotes and links to all the reviews can be found on aya theatre company's blog http://ayatheatre.wordpress.com