3 out of 5 stars

Actor Jack Klaff’s “Kafka,” a boldly conceived and exuberantly performed one-man show, is less a play than a tumultuous rotation of reveries from various historical figures connected to Franz Kafka, the great absurdist author (“The Trial,” “The Metamorphosis”). They celebrate and analyze him but don’t really tell his story; nor does Kafka himself when he appears. Klaff’s multi-character series of riffs is best when he is being quite funny (for example, he suggests the term “Kafkaesque” should be “Kafka-ish,” more like an order in a Jewish deli); at other times the piece can feel like an overly dramatized college lecture. — Adam Z. Horvath

Part of “Brits Off Broadway 2025” at 59E59 Theaters, through June 29, 2025; 59e59.org. (Review date: June 19, 2025)