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Socialist Review Index (1993–1996) | Socialist Review 177 Contents
From Socialist Review, No. 177, July/August 1994.
Copyright © Socialist Review.
Copied with thanks from the Socialist Review Archive.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Manifesto
by Janek Alexander, Paul Davies and Fern Smith
In a period where theatre rarely has an overtly political nature, the staging of a play based on Marx and Engels’ Communist Manifesto promised a breath of fresh air. However, the Volcano theatre company’s Manifesto fails in its attempt to convey the message of the original work.
The Communist Manifesto, written in 1848, was an indictment of the developing capitalist system and a rousing call to action to workers to overthrow the old political order and replace it with a better one.
Manifesto opens promisingly with its illustrations of the brutality of class society and exploitative nature of capitalism. This is put across through a series of innovative dance pieces, which are the strength of this production.
But when it moves on to its portrayal of the Russian Revolution and post-revolutionary society it politically loses its way very quickly. Through selections of the work of the poet Mayakovsky and Arthur Koestler’s novel Darkness at Noon, the play ends up with Stalin’s prison cells with a sense of inevitable logic.
If you’ve never read any Marx or Engels you’re unlikely to be inspired to do so by Manifesto. Its muddled politics make parts of the play obscure and difficult to follow.
But don’t let this production put you off reading the original pamphlet – it’s both clear and inspiring.
Plays at the Battersea Arts Centre till 4 July. Check for tour dates in the summer
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