Zinn puts ‘Marx in Soho’

“It’s the Second Coming. Jesus couldn’t make it, so I came.” And it seems at no better time. Karl Marx makes the stage his own, but still wonders upon first entering the Boston Playwright’s Theatre, “An audience?”

It seems a fitting question. Marx examines the Wall Street Journal only to find reports of the great feats of capitalism and free trade. Marx recognizes how the GDP rises every day, but, as he says, the workers produce more, only to see less of their product. After the first few minutes of “Marx in Soho,” it was hard to tell if Marx had come to the future or if we had begun to travel back to his time.

Howard Zinn, one of the forerunners of America’s New Left, rests his political theory and historical studies only to manifest them in the body of Marx in Soho, New York instead of Marx’s resting place, Soho, London.

Brian Jones, a graduate of Brown University’s theater program, does a wonderful job of bringing Marx to the stage as one imagines him: ingenious, sharp and passionate. As one might predict, Marx is incredibly angry. He occasionally meets a political tangent in the middle of his speech, only to be censored by a council in the afterlife occasionally flickering the light to let him know he has exceeded his limits. Of course, Marx alludes to an uprising he began in the afterlife with the help of Mark Twain, Socrates, Gandhi and Mother Jones.

The one-man play bounces between a biography of Marx told by himself and criticism of his “followers” of present.

Marx’s greatest stories are remembrances of his daughters, of which two lived to see young adulthood. Marx recounts Eleanor’s drinking and smoking at the age of nine and her criticisms of “The Jewish Question.” Marx mimics his young daughter’s argument, “Why pick Jews as your example of capitalism and commerce? You’re a Jew and so am I.” Marx also mentions that she began to wear the Star of David on her coat just to mock him.

Zinn makes Marx tangible even as he explains his most complex and cold work, “Das Kapital.” Marx complains, “This was 15 years!” He refers to his trip through the impoverished streets of London on the way to the British Musuem where he wrote “Das Kapital,” explaining that the sleeping homeless and raw sewage were the fuel of his work.

This Marx is different from the modern conception of him. Marx tells the story of one Christmas when he asked Engels to get him a Christmas tree. Engels brings a case of champagne instead. Marx recalls how his family stood around in a circle drinking champagne and imagined having a tree. Here, Zinn takes a turn with his Marx. He re-explains “religion is the opium of the masses,” pointing out that religion a crutch in the worst times. Marx then reads the full passage describing religion as a cry of hope from people with no place to turn.

One of the oddest features of “Marx in Soho” is the resemblance of Marx’s speech pattern to that of Zinn. Using “yes” to emphasize his points about the decaying modern time, one could imagine Zinn in his very place with the same poise and soft voice.

At times, Marx’s mysterious transportation to these modern apathetic times looks like Zinn speaking to a new generation. Now in his 60s, one must wonder how the man that has gone through almost three generations of activism is feeling. Perhaps a bit like Marx in Soho, New York, in the year 2000.