Meet the Playwright of the Kafka Project!

Meet James Robertson - the playwright and dramaturg for the Kafka Project (Ukraine, UK, USA).

James Robertson is a British-Australian, non-binary theatre-maker, sound artist, researcher and dramaturg, originally from Melbourne and currently based in London. Their creative practise is concerned with how belief, resonance and perspective catalyse with queerness, birdlife and history. Through their work they attempt to promote acceptance of genderqueerness, greater alignment with nature and the power of empathy.

James was the artistic director of the Plain English Theatre Company in Melbourne from 2018-2023, producing new work exploring toxic masculinity, political parables and harm OCD.

They were a long-term collaborator of ProEnglish Theatre in Ukraine, directing plays staged in Kyiv over Zoom as well as writing work for their stage. They have worked with Asterion Project, a theatre company in Hungary, staging their queer one-person play “This is the One” in 2023. With Transit Productions, a queer, Eastern European theatre company in London, James is also developing “The Open Book Project”, a collaborative exploration of gender, folktales and censorship in Hungary.

They are one half of the sound art collective Take Off & Landing, utilising experimental sound and spoken word to explore the fallacies of the aviation industry and its effects on the nature world. “Nesting at the Shore”, an eco-drama highlighting the plight of the Ringed Plovers in the UK, is currently in development with showings at the Bush Theatre, Omnibus Theatre, Cockpit Theatre and Union Theatre. James holds a BA in English & Theatre Studies and Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne and an MA in Dramaturgy & Writing for Performance at Goldsmiths College.

Together with Vero Streltsova, James developed the idea for the Kafka Project - a queer aaptation of Franz Kafka's 'The Trial', which is gonna be staged in Kyiv as an independent theatre project.