13 July 2009
Marx and the maid
Helene Demuth (Lenchen), on whom the main character is based.
Dr Anitra Nelson.
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Senior research associate, Dr Anitra Nelson, has written and produced a play about Karl Marx’s servant, Lenchen, who bore his illegitimate son.
Dr Nelson, who is at the RMIT Centre of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, based the play on historical records.
“The play explores the feelings of the person made invisible in conventional sources: communist revolutionary Karl Marx’s servant, Helene Demuth or Lenchen (played by Julianne Donovan),” Dr Nelson aid.
“The secret of their child was hidden by Marx’s collaborator, Frederick Engels (played by Ray Tiernan), who pretended to be the father.”
“Servant of the Revolution” premieres on 21 July at the Mechanics Institute Performing Arts Centre in Brunswick, on the corner of Sydney Road and Glenlyon Road.
Dr Nelson said director Brenda Addie breathed a postmodern absurdist tone into this 19th century tale by drawing out the commedia dell’arte that lay in the characters she had chosen to tell the story.
“Marx does not strut the stage, rather Lenchen and Engels dominate while the appearance of Marx’s youngest daughter, Tussy (played by Clara Pagone), offers a clear insight into the Marx family neuroses.
“The dialogue twists unpredictably until Marx’s wife Jenny (also played by Clara Pagone) appears at the finale.”
The play runs from 21 July to 1 August. Bookings can be made on 0420 933 101 or by email (servantrevolution@gmail.com).
