The Judgement of Karl Marx

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The Judgement of Karl Marx is a play, partly serious and partly comic, dealing with the reasons for the failure of Marxism. In act one, through an extraordinary arrangement, Karl Marx is allowed to confront the main 20th-century practitioners of his doctrines: Lenin, Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Fidel Castro, etc. He is not pleased at what they have done, but they themselves have found his ideas for building a better society somewhat lacking in realism. The second act brings Marx face to face with capitalists of various kinds, who give him as good as they get. Was Marxism, to put it bluntly, defeated by McDonald's? The third act is a garden party where, in an agreeable atmosphere of food, drink and beautiful music, the old fellow can relax and chat with such worthies as Socrates, Jonathan Swift, Nietzsche and Dostoevsky. But certain powers are dissatisfied with the human race itself and visit an apocalypse on it. Or so Marx believes... In the epilogue, he returns to the reality of his life in Victorian England. But there is not much hope there either...