An Evening with Karl Marx

Karl Marx was born on the 5th of May 1818, and to mark the anniversary of his birth The New Factory of the Eccentric Actor staged  an evening of readings and short plays. The evening focused as much on his private life as his public image.

We almost inevitably see the great revolutionary figures from the past through the lens of their political writings, and they often become one dimensional. Marx was much more than the Communist Manifesto and Das Capital. He had a family, friends, enemies, a rich and varied life.

Penelope Dimond and I selected work from a wide variety of people for inclusion, and both wrote additional material. I directed the evenings proceedings.

Marx himself wrote “Surround yourself with people who make you happy. People who make you laugh, who help you when you’re in need. People who genuinely care. They are the ones worth keeping in your life. Everyone else is just passing through.”

and

“The less you eat, drink and read books; the less you go to the theatre, the dance hall, the public house; the less you think, love, theorize, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you save – the greater becomes your treasure which neither moths nor dust will devour – your capital. The less you are, the more you have; the less you express your own life, the greater is your alienated life – the greater is the store of your estranged being.”

May 2018 – The Torriano Meeting House – London