Review: Balagula's 'Marx' is poignant portrait of misunderstood man

So what is the ideal play for an enterprising theater to present just weeks before a tumultuous midterm election? One about Karl Marx, of course.

Balagula Theatre adds another installment to its growing legacy of presenting emotionally and intellectually probing material with Marx in Soho by Howard Zinn.

Starring one lone cast member, veteran Lexington actor Ed Desiato, in the title role, the play is a cozy but stirring evening of reminiscence and extrapolation as the legendary political thinker returns from the afterlife to set right misconceptions about his life and work.

A bureaucratic glitch with the afterlife authorities returns Marx to Soho in New York, not the London neighborhood of Soho where he spent his last years of exile. The mistake paves the way for Marx to read modern American newspapers and leads to keen observations of how his work is still relevant today.

But the play isn't all political theory and rally crying, not even by half. The strength and artistic appeal of this show is how it poignantly shines a light on the human behind the oft-misinterpreted politics.

A simple but evocative setting, subdued warm lighting and a richly interpreted performance by Desiato are hallmarks of this potent, if flawed, production.

Director Natasha Williams boldly eschews her café's adjacent theater space in favor of dining room seating, a setup reminiscent of Balagula's early years. She situates Marx at the end of the café's bar, with theater patrons sitting at tables (with full dinner and cocktail service available) rather than in rows of chairs. The effect is one of invitation and inclusion: You feel as if you are having your own private evening with Marx over a glass of wine in a setting not unlike the ones he frequented with other revolutionaries of his time.

Williams and her crew make clever use of the bar lights, bathing Desiato in shifting warm tones that add to the ambiance.

A whiskered Desiato makes a striking Marx in his dapper 19th-century suit and carefully wrought mannerisms. He paints Marx as warm, determined, passionate, cognizant of his own flaws, and most of all, someone who loves humanity and is heartbroken by its continued suffering.

Revelations about the nitty-gritty details of Marx's personal life are perhaps the evening's most riveting features and where Desiato is at his best. A description of Marx walking through London, observing the poverty around him, strolling along the paved corridors of the rich before trudging home through the mud and human waste toward his home on Dean Street powerfully places the thinker in the context of his times and shows his willingness to suffer poverty and indignity in the name of his work.

Other poignant scenes include reminiscences of his wife, an aristocrat who traded comfort for toil in her love for Marx, transcribing his wretched handwriting and tending to the painful boils on his buttocks. Pawning an overcoat in the winter, watching babies die in the cold apartment with no furniture — these are deeply heart-wrenching details that humanize the polarizing figure.

There is, however, one noticeable hiccup in the production. While Marx frequently refers to books and newspapers that he has accumulated at his place by the bar, Desiato relies too heavily on one of them. I could be wrong, but he either actually is or appears to be reading from the script at times. This could be a convention of the play; after all, the book is bound and furnished with pictures, so perhaps it is his life story he is referring to. Either way, when he consults it too much, he loses his eye contact and connection with the audience, which disrupts the organic chemistry and flow of the play. It is not enough to mar the performance as a whole, but it is a wrinkle in an otherwise smooth and fluid production. It will be interesting to see how this evolves during the course of the play's run.

Finally, an offstage feature is the inclusion of several non-profit and social justice organizations in the program. Proceeds from each performance go to one of these groups, a testament to Balagula's commitment to make art a vehicle for social self-examination and, ultimately, positive change.

This story was originally published October 19, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Review: Balagula's 'Marx' is poignant portrait of misunderstood man."