Presenting at Our Sacred Space- Karl Marx Mumbai Mein: A play by Mumbai based theatre group Rangrez.
About Writer of "Karl Marx in Soho"
Howard Zinn was an American historian, author, playwright, and social activist. He was apolitical science professor at Boston University for 24 years and taught history at Spelman College for 7 years. Zinn wrote more than 20 books, including his best-selling and influential "A People's History of the United States. He wrote extensively about the civil rights and anti-war movements, and labor history of the United States. His memoir, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train, was also the title of a 2004 documentary about Zinn's life and work.
Writer's Note About the play:
I first read "The communist manifesto given to me, I am sure, by young communist who lived in my working class neighborhood when I was about seventeen. It had a profound effect on me, because everything I saw in my own life , the life of my own parents and the conditions in the united states in 1939 seemed to be explained , put into a historical context and placed under a powerful analytical light. I wrote the play at a time when the collapse of the Soviet Union brought an almost universal exultation in the mainstream press and among political leaders not only was "The enemy gone" but the idea of Marxism was discredited. Capitalism and the: Free market" had triumphed. Marxism had failed. Marx was truly dead. I thought it important, therefore to make it clear that neither the Soviet Union nor other countries that called themselves "Marxist" but had set up police states represented Marx's notion of socialism. I want to show Marx as angry that his theories had been so distorted as to stand for Stalinist cruelties through this play.
Those who read "Marx in Soho" may wonder how much is historically accurate. The major events in Marx's life and in the history of the era fundamentally true: His marriage to Jenny, his exile to London the death of his three children, and the political conflict of that time. The Irish struggle against England. The main characters he talks about are real the members of his family his friend Engels his rival
Bakunin. The dialogue is invented but I have tried to be true to the personalities and the thinking of the characters, though I may be taking liberties in imagining his ideological with Jenny and Eleanor. On a few occasions, as in his description of Napoleon lll , I use Marx's own word. My hope is that "Marx in Soho" illuminates not just that time and Marx's place in it, but our time and our place in it.
About Director:
I am doing theatre since last 12 years. I worked with some eminent theatre directors & writers like Habib Tanvir, Robin Das, Aadil hussain, Parnab Mukharji (International alternative theatre performer) Ranvir singh (Natinal IPTA president) Ramu Ramanathan, Padm Shree Niranjan Goswami, Asghar wajahat and many more. Right now I am running a theatre group called "Rangrez Sarokaar Theatre Productions" in Bombay since last five years. I have directed several plays like "Gandhi ne kaha tha(More than 80 shows in different parts of india) Ulgulan(Based on a life of tribal leader Birsa Munda) Momin Manto, Shanti Shanti - It's a war(Spoof on Mahabharat), Ram Sajeewan ki prem Katha (Writer Uday Prakash) under the banner of Rangrez Theatre Productions.
{{todos[0].text}}