The Capital of Karl Marx staged by Silvain Creuzevault at Culturgest, Lisbon - The 7th of June 2014

I must confess I hesitated a while prior to having decided to go and watch Silvain Creuzevault's staging of the Capital by Karl Marx, not only because I felt the two hours and a half performance would be fairly hard to withstand but particularly because I believed it would almost naturally bring about rather unpleasant reminiscences of the way this particular text was "taught" (or rather, forced upon us) at school when I was an adolescent.

The performance captivated me right from the beginning though, as a single actor on stage voiced  a Bertold Brecht, Sigmund Freud and Michel Foucault  inter active dialogue in what I would definitely consider one of the best performing acts I have ever seen on stage. Arthur Igual (I believe this to be the actor's name) brilliantly incarnated discourses and concepts that set the scenario before the sequencing that would take the spectators into the 1848 Revolution, the Club des amis launched by Francois-Vincent Raspail and inflamed dialogues that revolved around and had us plunged into intellectual stimulating political issues that do concern us all.

Ironic, rich and rather profound dialogues between Armand Barbés,  Louis-Auguste Blanqui, Louis Blanc, Engels and Albert, the worker (Alexandre Martin) further immersed the audience in the problematic issue being brought out and despite there being too much information to "digest" it still had us ponder.

I would like to praise the amazing ensemble of  male actors, whose performance was at the heart of the success of this theatrical piece, in my most humble opinion. I was particularly impressed by Antoine Cegarra, Pierre Devérines, Bénoit Carré, Vincent Arot and Lionel Dray, not forgetting the outstanding Arthur Igual. But my special thanks should be addressed to Silvain Creuzevault for having staged it the way he did.

Actors: Vincent Arot, Bénoit Carré, Antoine Cegarra, Pierre Devérines, Lionel Dray, Arthur Igual Clémence Jeanguillaume, Léo-Antonin Lutinier, Fréderic Noaille, Amandine Pudlo, Sylvain Sounier, Julien Villa, Noémie Zurtelli

Lighting: Vyara Stefanova and Nathalie Perrier

Production: Elodie Régibier, Le Singe

Co-Production: Nouveau Théatre d'Angers, Centre Dramatique National Pays de la Loire, La Coline - Théatre National, Comédie de Valence, Festival d'Automne à Paris, Centre Dramatique National Drôme Ardèche, La Criée- Théatre National de Marseille, Le Parvis - scène nationale Tarbes Pyrénées, Printemps des comédiens, MC2: Grenoble, La Filature - scène nationale de Mulhouse, L'Archipel - scène nationale de Perpignan, Théatre National de Bruxelles, Le Cratère - scène nationale d'Alès, Scènes Croisées de Lozère, GREC 2014 Festival de Barcelona, TnBA - Théatre de Bordeaux à l'Aquitaine, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, NXTSTP.

Participation: Théatre Garonne and Théatre Nacioanl de Toulouse

Support: General Dictorate of Artistic Creation of the Ministry of Culture and Communication, Institut Français du Portugal and the French Embassy in Lisbon.