NT Live’s Young Marx ‘pacy, witty and vivid’ on screen at Orcas Center

The National Theatre production of “Young Marx,” broadcast live from London’s newest venue the Bridge Theatre streams live to the Orcas Center screen on Jan. 25, 7:30 p.m. Rory Kinnear stars in this new comedy written by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman. If you loved “One Man, Two Guvnors”— this seriously clever comedy “Young Marx” is not to be missed.

Kinnear (“The Threepenny Opera,” “Penny Dreadful,” “Othello”) is Marx and Oliver Chris (“Twelfth Night,” “Green Wing”) is Engels, in this new comedy from Nicholas Hytner and the creative team behind Broadway and West End hit comedy “One Man, Two Guvnors.” “Young Marx” is a historical comedy, based on true events from the time when Karl Marx lived in Soho, London.

The play is set in the 1850s and introduces a young Karl Marx at 32, broke and restless, this young revolutionary is a frothing combination of intellectual brilliance, satiric wit, and child-like emotional illiteracy. Creditors, spies, rival revolutionary factions and prospective seducers of his beautiful wife all circle like vultures as he struggles with writer’s block, endures his marriage falling apart and his best friend Engels despairs at his wasted genius. But there’s still no one in the capital who can show you a better night on the piss than Karl Heinrich Marx.

The laughs keep coming, said Radio Times, “thanks in large part to Rory Kinnear’s superb performance in the title role, there’s an emotional truth about ‘Young Marx’ that is very satisfying — in particular in his relationships with his friend Friedrich Engels and his long-suffering wife Jenny, great credit going to Oliver Chris and Nancy Carroll in those roles.”

Tickets for NT Live’s “Young Marx” are $20, $15 for students, $2 off for Orcas Center members, and may be purchased at orcascenter.org or by calling 376-2281 ext. 1 or visiting the Orcas Center Box Office open Tuesday–Friday from 12–3 p.m.pm. Subsidized tickets available for $5 from the box office.