'Electrico Carlos Marx' Play Opens in Buenos Aires

Mere days after the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx, Argentinean theater director Manuel Santos Inurrieta will debut a play chronicling the famed German philosopher and communist ideologue titled "Electrico Carlos Marx." 

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Featuring cameos by actors Raul Serrano, Atilio Boron and Claudio Gallardou the production will premier Saturday at the Cultural Center of Cooperation in Buenos Aires at 10:30 p.m.

The play is the third project Santos Inurrieta is producing as part of the Los Internacionales theatre group, which combines elements related to “epic theater, Latin America, and Brechtian characteristics.”

The director says he first considered producing the production after “beginning to write monologues" and stumbling upon the work of the German philosopher. From there “I started thinking about a current Marx (play),” he told Pagina 12.

Santos Inurrieta has previously directed a play about the Cuban revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro, titled "Fidel-Fidel" and another titled "Conflict in the Press.”

The play, a sort of theatrical essay, presents Marx as someone who “explores attitudes within a society mediated by technological languages, social networks, and cyberspace,” according to the synopsis.

Given the current social and economic conditions Argentines face Santos Inurrieta said he believes Marx's ideology is still relevant. 

"More than ever, in the face of an ultra neo-liberal government and today we return to the IMF, and from every point of view: its economic analysis of the world, its political imprint," he said. "Marx speaks of the union of the workers of the world, of the need to form a block that can come out to confront. With all the updates we could do, his theory enjoys enormous health... What some may call cracks in the system, we Marxists call class struggle."

Politics and art, as well as a host of theatrical devices, serve as an axis appealing to sprinkles of humor, which enable the audience to reflect about the play's context. "The anniversary of Marx's birthday (and the play's release) was almost a coincidence. The genesis is the desire to discuss his ideas in the here and now,” said Santos Inurrieta.