There’s no insect costume, no expensive special effects à la “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” But the Vesturport Theatre-Lyric Hammersmith coproduction of Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” beginning performances Wednesday on the Paramount Center Mainstage, manages to be off the wall nonetheless.

Anyone who’s taken high school English should remember the basics of Kafka’s story, first published in 1915: Salesman Gregor Samsa wakes up one day to find himself inexplicably transformed into a giant insect, generally rendered as a cockroach. His parents and sister recoil at the sight and eventually turn against him.