A Chinese production company is turning “Das Kapital”–the treatise by Marx and Engels that expounds the internal contradictions of capitalism and sets forth the foundations of communism–into a Broadway-style musical! China to bring Das Kapital to life on Beijing stage |guardian.co.uk:
You’ve read the book, attended the seminars and pondered the accumulation of surplus value – now see the musical.
Chinese producers are attempting to transform Das Kapital from a hefty treatise on political economy into a popular stage show, complete with catchy tunes and nifty footwork.
Whether Karl Marx would approve of his masterwork being served up as entertainment for China’s new bourgeoisie is a matter of speculation. But the director He Nian – best known for his stage adaptation of a martial-arts spoof – has promised to unite elements from Broadway musicals and Las Vegas shows in a hip, interesting and educational play featuring a live band, singing and dancing.
“The particular performance style we choose is not important, but Marx’s theories cannot be distorted,” he said sternly, in an interview with the Wen Hui Bao newspaper.
Zhang Jun, an economics professor at Shanghai’s prestigious Fudan University, is being drafted in to ensure the production is intellectually rigorous.
The director said the play, which is to open next year, will be set in a company and will document the progress of its workers. In the first half they realise their boss is exploiting them and begin to understand the theory of surplus value. But far from uniting, as Marx enjoined them in the Communist Manifesto, some continue to work as before, some mutiny and others employ collective bargaining.
Yang Shaolin, the general manager of the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre, said that in the past it would have been difficult to imagine Das Kapital adapted into a play with “main characters, major dramatic elements, and profound educational meaning”, but that it was now possible thanks to the flourishing of different styles in Chinese theatre.
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