Marx and Fever at Cal Stage

Just in time for a new administration in California under Gov. Jerry Brown, California Stage offers some decidedly political—albeit humorous—theater in a limited engagement. California Stage presents Howard Zinn’s Marx in Soho in a two-night run on January 12 and 13 at 8 p.m., followed by a two-night engagement for Wallace Shawn’s fable, The Fever, also at 8 p.m., on January 14 and 15. In Marx in Soho, Karl Marx gets an opportunity to return to London’s Soho—but the heavenly bureaucrats screw up and he ends up in New York’s Soho, with an audience to boot. Shawn’s The Fever is a monologue about the effects of our well-meaning lives on the rest of the world—The New York Times said of a 2007 production, “It’s sort of like Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, with you, dear viewer, cast in the distasteful role of Kurtz.” Tickets are $12-$15 for the shows at California Stage, 1723 25th Street (25th and R streets). Call (916) 451-5822 for reservations.