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Theatre listings > Karl Marx's Beard. - Tour & world premiere. Playwright – Raymond Ross. Director – Ed Robson. Company – Theatre Objektiv Company Website. Cast - here . Tour Dates – Here. Venue Seen – The Arches, Argyle St. Glasgow on 19 November. Run Time - one hour (no interval). Reviewer - Tom Tabori. Psychological not political dismemberment. If, as Theatre Objektiv's publicity claims, Karl Marx's Beard ‘takes an open razor to the pockmarked face of political idealism’, then it is a blunt one. Sharper is the razor that dismembers the protagonists’ mindsets. And here lies the play’s appeal. Karl Marx’s Beard’s history lesson-style presentation of Communism arguments against idealism are coupled by playwright Raymond Ross with the horror of the Gulag which forced the idealist to look for Communism elsewhere. The play also leaves the audience to find political arguments somewhere else, too. Boris and Karloff are locked in a cell together, their beloved State having turned on them. The play opens with them marching on the spot in white prisoner fatigues on a red strip of carpet, to the strains of Soviet music of the heroic-worker. Two hats sit on the opposite end of the red, their marching reels in the red carpet until the hats are close enough to put on. The hats are Communism, their wearing the hats is their belief, and hat and person are as separable figuratively as literally. Each becomes the other’s interrogator. Karloff berates Boris with the regime's crimes, making Boris leap out of his seat in a show of outrage, only for Karloff to snatch Boris’s seat and undergo the same treatment. Into the vacuum left by their deconstructed ‘idealism’ appears the idea of friendship. ‘You’re a good friend, Karloff’ says Boris. Little Karloff peers up at his lanky cellmate, testing the statement for trickery. And the intimacy that has grown throughout the play is revealed as Karloff returns ‘So are you Boris, so are you.’ The actors powerfully express this presentation of rival ideas fighting for supremacy in suspicious and insecure minds. But the theatre goer drawn by the title for political content should stay away. Psychological dismemberment is the fare, here. The play is not so artful a subverter of Communism as it is of human belief. © Tom Tabori 19 November 2004 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Cast List. Boris - Matthew Zajac and Karloff - Rod Stewart. Tour Details - 18 & 19 Nov at 7:30pm Glasgow The Arches 0870 240 7528. 25 - 27 Nov at 7:30pm Edinburgh Traverse Theatre 0131 228 1404. Tour ends. Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is thelma@edinburghguide.com Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions. Theatre listings >
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