Comedian Richard Ayoade Reads a Series of Frantic Letters From Franz Kafka to His Fiancée in 1912

Comedian Richard Ayoade Reads a Series of Frantic Letters From Franz Kafka to His Fiancée in 1912

Comedian Richard Ayoade read a frantic series of rather anxious letters written by Franz Kafka to his fiancée Felice Bauer in 1912. The talented writer expressed his feelings by cursing the slow pace of the mail, which did not keep up with his need to communicate his love. Judging by the endless stream of anxious letters he sent to his fiancée Felice Bauer, it’s a wonder novelist Franz Kafka found time for anything besides fretting about the ma…

Richard Ayoade Reads Kafka’s Letters and Slowly Spirals Into Victorian Despair

Before ghosting was a thing, novelist Franz Kafka was out here having full-blown existential meltdowns over mail he never received. Now, imagine Richard Ayoade, deadpan master of awkward energy, reading Kafka’s anxiety-ridden love letters like a man personally betrayed by the postal service. Recorded at Letters Live at the Royal Albert Hall, this performance is a glorious meltdown in real time. Kafka is spiraling, pleading, second-guessing, apol…