Music by Jonathan Dove

Libretto by Charles Hart based on an original scenario by Jurgen R. Weber

Conducted by David Parry

Directed by Stephen Barlow

Tickets from £22.50

Don’t tell the Nixon (in China) fans, but the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, bushes Red for the UK premiere of Jonathan Dove’s rambunctious farce Marx in London! Which runs at the venue until February 17th.

Even with the production’s notable success already established, Scottish Opera makes Marx in London! their own, a move which pays off tremendously with gleeful farce and persuasive wit. The Father of Communism is a name many are familiar with – but even the most studious minds on the man and his sociological and economic ideologies may find this Marx life to be far more recognisable as a prime-time sitcom or soap opera, as Marx’s political impact interlaced with their ridiculous and hectic personal life: complete with debtors, lovers, angry wives, and a few near-misses with political rivals.

We are helpfully informed by Jamie MacDougall’s winking and nudging Spy that the year is 1871 (August 14th, if you really want to know). The political philosopher’s home is in chaos even before their possessions are removed as the debts mount up for Marx – who is frantically working on Das Kapital between flings with the housekeeper Helene Demuth (marvellously performed by Lucy Schaufer). Ready to sell the silverware, Roland Wood’s Karl Marx is a glorious role – dripping with performance-gusto for the drama, revelling in the physical elements of comedy, all while delivering clear and controlled vocals, though, in truth, the best songs are reserved for everyone except Marx in Charles Harts’ libretto.

Housing us through plenty of rich humour is Yannis Thavoris’ stellar design work that collides old-etchings of London with a helping of pop art by way of a Monty Python opening. And as the furniture flies higher than high, with scene changes into enormous museum reading rooms and dark avaricious pawn-dens, it all ties together the animated nature of performance – particularly Kally Lloyd-Jone’s choreography. A touch more comedic, and even bordering into a more musical theatre sense of ensemble performance, in a remarkable way Marx in London! refrains from parodying the artform itself – maintaining integrity for opera, which is championed in Hart’s sharp libretto and Dove’s animated music.

Well-deserving of their triumphant praise, David Parry’s conduction of the Scottish Opera Orchestra is, in some ways, the winner of the evening – amplifying everything which makes the production zip, while entirely respectable on its own, particularly the sharp freshness of the string ensemble. Armed with Dove’s bouncing music contains plenty of Gilbert & Sullivan charm (with a hefty, dolloped flavour of some Roger & Hammerstein chorus work), the first act closes with an influential and effective chorus number which introduces important representations of political activism – offering a sting of what Barlow’s production could have pushed a touch harder. Though the second act’s pub scene brings with it the weight many have been expecting from Wood’s stellar performance the gravity of one of history’s most impactful figures, stripped back from the buffoonery and soapbox antics.

Following the pub, switching drams for gin is a catchy ditty-duet from Orla Boylan and Schaufer that wins over any latecomers to the show’s success, as the pair take on fully-fledged starring roles in an already ensemble-rich production. While Rebecca Bottone and William Morgan stray the narrative on a different path in the pair’s blossoming romance as Marx’s youngest daughter ‘Tussi’ and Freddy, a young man keeping plenty of secrets of his own, the pair often flitting playfully past PJ McEvoy’s spirited video design projected behind the on-stage action.

Not without halts in the pacing, Barlow’s otherwise strong direction finds itself in a tricky crossroads – though none of the avenues is particularly troubling or erroneous to the performance: where each component flourishes and periodically works well with one another (particularly the music, libretto, and comedic elements), where more than two meet, there is a dulling of the edges for the more serious moments. A triumph, Marx in London! via Glasgow strikes a raucous echo of jolly laughter and enthusiasm that carries throughout the performance. Visually striking, with an undeniable charm and jocular-infused libretto, Scottish Opera’s UK premiere makes audiences want to paint the town Red.

---