So begins Young Marx, the debut production at the new Bridge Theatre on London's South Bank. For me, the play was an unexpected delight - not the dry, inaccessible political lecture I feared it might be, but a playful, upbeat comedy highlighting the all-too-human flaws and failings of one man, now known as the greatest intellectual revolutionary of his age. Here's my thoughts.
In the play, Marx's life is one of chaotic comings and goings, with disaster tripping on the heels of disaster and obstacles at every turn. The synopsis for the play on the Bridge Theatre website quips that Marx is 'broke, restless and horny', but he is more than that, too - he is a man of conflicts, both desperate and discouraged, trapped and lost, trying too hard and not trying hard enough. Yet despite this tumultuousness, the production itself runs like a well-oiled machine, with smooth scene transitions achieved by its revolving set, effortless comic timing, and moments of pitch-perfect clarity during its more emotional scenes.
Set: Soho Streets
The Bridge Theatre itself, having only just opened on 18 October 2017, is a crisp, clean, classy new venue. Its foyer is lit with vintage-style lightbulbs suspended from the ceiling; the auditorium is a modern space which has no restricted viewing, and a flexible seating arrangement which can be transformed from proscenium to promenade to thrust. The theatre's bar and restaurant offer locally sourced delicacies, and freshly-baked madeleines are served during the play's interval. The Bridge is most definitely a 21st century venue.
How, then, are we to step from this modern space into the dark, grimy streets of 19th century Soho? Quite easily, it turns out. When the lights go down, the brand new auditorium slips away, and we are left with the scene on stage - a silhouetted skyline of tiled roofs and chimney pots, with a three-dimensional housing block in centre stage. Flickering lanterns hang from brackets on the walls; wisps of smoke rise from the chimneys. Around this block strut policemen on the beat, oyster wenches plying their trade, and spies and thieves darting through the shadows - Marx amongst them.
But it is not only to the streets of Soho that we are transported. The exterior walls alter throughout the production, and with the addition of other set furniture, transform into the reading room of the British Library, a corridor in a prison, the outside of a church, an open heath, and a graveyard. The set also revolves during some scene transitions, turning to show an open room, which provides the setting for the inside of the Marx household, the pub in which the Communist League meet and debate, and the pawnbrokers shop.
This dynamic, multi-faceted set meant that the play was ceaselessly moving, unfolding and developing, a chaotic forward motion which captured the restlessness of its central character and the urgency of the matters he addressees, both politically and personally.
Notable Performance: Marx and Engels (Engels and Marx)
It is difficult to choose a single performance which stands out here, as the entire company gives top-notch performances as characters who are all as fully-formed as each other. Some characters are funny, like Tony Jayawardena's Schmidt and Eben Figueiredo's Schramm; others are fraught with emotion, like Nancy Carroll's Jenny, and Nicholas Burns's August von Willich. The child actors portraying the Marx children, 'Fawksey' and 'Qui Qui', are equally as engaging as the adults. But I found the friendship between Marx and Friedrich Engels (Oliver Chris), to be particularly compelling, and something I would like to spend a moment exploring.
The relationship between Marx and Engels is as dynamic as the rest of the play. They form a comedy/musical double act, singing and joking about the piano; drinking buddies who, after a particularly wild night, steal off with a wrought-iron gate; and philosophical partners, who challenge and contribute to each other's theories, pushing each other's thinking and putting the pen to paper.
Kinnear and Chris have got these parts down - the comic timing, the sarcastic quips, the frustrated eyerolls at the other's ignorance. Engels, in a way, completes Marx, stepping into the roles of caring friend to Jenny, loving guardian to the children, stoic believer in his comrade's genius, when Marx is too distracted to manage these things alone. Engels is also the clear mind to Marx's chaotic confusion, helping him achieve clarity without being afraid to shoot him down. This is demonstrated best in the scene where, after stealing the gate, Marx bemoans his 'brutalised' existence, and Engels rebukes him with a passionate lecture on what it really means to be poor and powerless.
This, for me, rounds these characters off beautifully. The play itself is not a political manifesto or lecture, but its ability to raise these issues and deliver them in a very human way, makes Young Marx a knock-out production, and one well worth seeing.
Notable Scene: Your Typical Library Brawl
There are no production pictures for this scene, and indeed the dramatis personae on the Bridge website is a little vague, so it is likely that the team behind Young Marx are endeavouring to keep this scene under wraps to retain its comedic punch. If you are planning on seeing the play, and don't want to know, look away now!
Spurred into action by serious upheaval in the Communist League and in his own relationships, Marx heads to the reading room of the British Library to continue his research. There, he meets a strange, eccentric old man researching crustaceans, who insists Marx, and indeed all of us, are barnacles (not figuratively, literally). The man launches into an explanation of his research, to which Marx bluntly summarises, 'So you're looking at the origin of species?' Double-taking, eyes popping, the elderly man turns to Marx: 'Can I use that?' This rather mundane, if slightly odd, meeting of great minds got one of the biggest laughs of the show.
Still in the reading room, Marx is later joined by Engels, who has urgent news regarding their communist comrades - but Marx has his own shocking revelations to reveal (his being the father to Nym's baby). Their heated discussion draws rebuke from the library staff - shushes escalate to pushes and shoves, and then punches, with the library erupting into a slapstick brawl in which the only character to emerge unscathed (and none the wiser), is Darwin himself.
One Final Note
Not everything I want to say about Young Marx will fit into the above categories of set, characters, or scene. There is one particularly clever aspect of the play that I would like to address - the use of accents. Of course, Karl Marx and most other characters in this play are were German speakers, and would have spoken English in a German accent. At the beginning of the play, Kinnear adopted a German accent, but appeared to lose it a few scenes in, with other actors adopting the accent sporadically. Only later in the play did I understand what they were doing. Marx, Engels and the others spoke with a German accent when they were addressing English men or women (such as the policemen or the bailiffs), or people outside their family unit (they answered knocks at the door in a German accent until they had verified the knocker's identity). When they spoke together as a family unit, they spoke with English accents. As well as reducing the amount of time the actors had to put on a foreign accent, this also highlighted the otherness of the Marx family to the English, reminding the audience of their position as refugees, and highlighting the difference between their private and public relationships. Very cleverly done, and a nice touch.
Young Marx is a must-see if you can. It is riotously funny, fast-paced, and at times, powerfully moving. Watch the trailer below to see for yourself. The play runs at the Bridge Theatre until 31 December 2017, but will also be screened via NT Live on 7 December, with encores in selected cinemas.
Photo credits:
1. The company of Young Marx at the Bridge Theatre (2017), photo by Manuel Harlan, found here.
2. The set of Young Marx, screenshot of the production trailer (above), found here.
3, 4. Rory Kinnear and Oliver Chris as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, photos by Manuel Harlan, found here and here.
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