Hat tip to Socialist Unity blog.)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2010-08/24/c_13459950.htm
Das Kapital relaunched as musical manifesto for capital-obsessed China
English.news.cn 2010-08-24 17:08:03
SHANGHAI, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) — When Karl Marx famously said
“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce,” he
might well have added “…or as a musical.”
One can only guess at what the great political and economic
philosopher might have thought of his best-known work, Das
Kapital, distilled into a song and dance production — but
Shanghai audiences have been flocking to see it since it opened
last week.
Broadway musical elements have been adopted in this black humor
story, which involves the audience in a critique of modern
capitalism and the social realities of 21st Century China.
“Confronting current social realities, how to reinterpret Marx’s
masterpiece became the mainspring for producing the stage play,”
says He Nian, who directs the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center
production at the Shanghai Majestic Theater.
While it may have borrowed the most famous title penned by Marx
(1818-1883), He says the performance taps into and reflects a
renewed interest in the work.
“Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’ has run out of copies in some Western
countries since the financial crisis in 2008, and a Japanese
cartoon version of ‘Das Kapital’ has also became a best-seller
again,” says the 30-year-old director.
High housing prices, second generations of the rich, and the
financial crisis are the modern phenomena interpreted according to
the theories of Marxist economics.
The production tells a story of an actor who plans to raise 10
million yuan (1.47 million U.S. dollars) to invest in a stage
play. However, it turns into a capital operation after China’s
most successful real estate tycoon and most popular comedian join in.
The actor becomes the performance company’s boss and the company
is soon listed on the Nasdaq exchange. Standard and Poor even
creates an “applause index” for it — the more applause the higher
the share price.
The index shows enthusiastic applause for the play as each member
of the audience becomes a shareholder in the play with his or her
ticket.
Workers, however, respond in different ways after they discover
they have been exploited by their boss and discover the theory of
“surplus value,” the value of the product compared to the value of
their labor.
Some are willing to be exploited, since they believe the tougher
their boss, the more they are valued. Some negotiate with the
boss, but the risk of unemployment and high housing loans make
them compromise.
Eventually “Das Kapital” has no stage and no actors or actresses
in the theater, but only the thunder of applause from the
audience, the shareholders of the play within a play. The share
price breaks its own record time and time again until a financial
crisis approaches.
The definition of “capital” and its true value are the theme of
the play.
“China cannot develop without capital. Capital is neither good nor
bad, neither angel nor devil,” says Yu Rongjun, the writer.
However, Yang Shaolin, general manager of the Shanghai Dramatic
Arts Center and production designer, believes that profit-driven
capital needs to be regulated, controlled and supervised.
Yang claims that financial regulations and surplus value
allocations become subjects for public debate after the performance.
Yang says neither the government nor the public have challenged
the production and he is confident that tickets will continue to
sell well.
The first volume of Marx’s master work was published in 1867, and
the other two volumes were released in 1885 and 1894.
Marx also famously said that art is “the immortal movement of its
time,” but this production runs until Aug. 29.