What next, Kapital the Movie?

Despite the lack of plot, romantic interest or any juicy murders (okay there are plenty in its name but none in the book itself) a German theatre group has brought Kapital to the stage.

With the purpose of turning catchy topics such as "the production of absolute surplus value" into a crowd puller, eight people - selected from among those who have read the book from cover to cover - tell their own stories, creating a theatrical collage where Marx forms the common thread.

The play, Kapital: Volume One, is the brainchild of Rimini Protokoll, a collective of young German directors who have made a name for themselves in "documentary theatre". In Kapital, the participants make up a diverse bunch. There is a staunch Marxist who rails against Coca-Cola and the evils of consumer society, a socialist singer from the former communist east Germany, and a blind call-centre worker who dreams of going on Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

In an unusual take on audience participation, every theatregoer gets a bound book - Volume 23 of the Collected Works of Marx and Engels. Reading the complete volume aloud, with analysis to work out what is being said, would mean a theatre audience having to sit and watch for an entire year. But the Rimini Protokoll directors have kept their version to the more manageable length of one evening. The collective says, however, that every performance is different, reflecting the spontaneity of a play that was rehearsed for only three weeks.

Rimini Protokoll have had recent sellout shows, such as Blaiberg und Sweetheart 19, which included former heart transplant patients alongside people who had sought love on lonely hearts websites. After its Düsseldorf run the play will be shown in Berlin, Frankfurt and Zurich. There is no news of a West End slot (mercifully)

Kapital Karl Marx theatre