Marx in Soho

Performed by: Bob Weick
Directed by: John Doyle
Produced by: Iron Age Theatre (PA)

“Art is always and everywhere the secret confession, and at the same time the immortal movement of its time.” – Karl Marx

After touring more than 180 performances nationally, the Pennsylvania-based Iron Age Theatre brings Marx in Soho to New York City for "The 9.13 Project," playing along with their other production of Citizen Paine.

Written by the late, great historian Howard Zinn (The People’s History of the United States), this 70-minute production does more than simply examine the life and works of Karl Marx, but challenges its audience to consider the issues of Social Justice. Karl Marx returns to earth in New York City to clear his name.

Review from the Philadelphia Weekly

"If you're opposed to the Bush administration's domestic and international policies, you may be surprised how many ideologies you share with the title character in the Iron Age Theatre's production of Marx in Soho. But if you're worried this somehow makes you a Marxist, fear not—it turns out Karl Marx didn't even consider himself one.

There's an appealing purity to director John Doyle's production at the Philly Fringe, as a lone storyteller stands before us and plainly relates the tale of the philosopher's life. Because the play is set in present-day Philadelphia, Doyle has updated some of the facts and figures in Howard Zinn's script regarding America's GNP and the number of Americans without health insurance.

Addressing such hot-button issues as war and the death penalty, Marx's comments bear more than a passing resemblance to the left wing of the Democratic Party (regarding the death penalty, Marx offers that "rather than punishing criminals for crimes, we should destroy the social institutions that engender these crimes").
Yet while he abhors the lives needlessly wasted as a result of war and capitol punishment, it's capitalism for which he reserves his most impassioned oratory. Bemoaning the fact that 1 percent of the U.S. population retains 40 percent of the wealth or that millions of the nation's children are forced to live beneath the poverty level, he shakes his sadly before admitting that since his death, 'Yes, capitalism has triumphed, but over whom?' Whom indeed?"

J. Cooper Robb, Philadelphia Weekly