Howard Zinn's “Marx In Soho” to be performed in Dubuque July 6-8

By Art Roche

Howard Zinn's one-man play depicting Karl Marx returned to earth 120 years after his death, will be performed in Dubuque for three nights as part of Levy Arts' Midwest Tour.  Jerry Levy, a veteran actor as well as Sociology professor at Marlboro College in Brattleboro, Vermont, has performed the play over the last several years in cities across the United States and internationally.

Howard Zinn is a well-known activist and historian, best known for his alternative portrait of Amercian history, “A People's History of the United States.”  He is less known for his work as a playwright.  Zinn's premise for this witty and insightful “play on history” is that Karl Marx has agitated with the authorities of the afterlife for a chance to clear his name. Through a bureaucratic error, though, Marx is sent to Soho in New York, rather than his old stomping ground in London, to make his case.

Jerry Levy, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Marx, introduces us to Marx's wife, Jenny, his children, the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, and a host of other characters.   Sometimes funny, sometimes wistful, the portrayal of Karl Marx will certainly invite audience members to learn more about this extremely interesting and influential thinker.

Performances are at 8 pm on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, July 6, 7, and 8, 2006, at The Faces Warehouse (10th and  Jackson) in the Warehouse District of downtown Dubuque.  Tickets are $12 at the door, $10 for seniors and students, and $10 for advance reservations.  Call 563-556-1699 for advance reservations.

Proceeds from the play will be used to help fund Dubuque SOA Watch's annual trip to Fort Benning, Georgia to call for closing the School of the Americas.