The shock of watching the early section of Making Marx can have you wondering if you had stepped into the wrong space at the Assembly Rooms.
Who was this female figure in a huge coat whose arms seem to be extended upwards by wires that make her seem like some puppet? And then there is the voice-over of what sounds like a very modern female manager. Soon, the puppet disengages from the wires and lip-syncs to the voiceover.
Gradually, we realise we are seeing a version of Jennie Marx, the wife of Karl Marx, that a voice says is “trapped inside the patriarchy.”
This is Clara Francesca’s bold, imaginative, surreal provocation. When we do hear the actual voice of the figure who began as a puppet, she tells us of her commitment to radical politics. As she walks slowly up and down the central aisle of the theatre space, she hands out a set of beads to individual audience members as she names each of her nine children.
Later, she also distributes to individuals the love letters of Karl Marx.
Much of what is said feels like an abstract response to the treatment of women in general, much more so than its earlier version under the title of Manifesting Mrs Marx.
It’s still a disorientating performance. You are intrigued but never quite sure where it is heading, or what will come next.