Servant of the Revolution

5/29/09

RAY TIERNAN plays ENGELS

Ray Tiernan has been working professionally as an actor in film, television and theatre for several years. He has worked in theatre throughout Australia including recent seasons of I Want to be in a Jane Austen Novel and Two Weeks with the Queen. Having just relocated to Melbourne from Brisbane, Servant of the Revolution marks Ray’s first theatre performance in Melbourne. Recently Ray appeared in Sea Patrol and the drama series The Strip on Channel Nine. He performs stand-up comedy and has developed skit comedy for the Austereo radio network in Brisbane and Canberra. He will appear in the 2009 season of Channel Seven's City Homicide and the online series Welcome to the Cosmos.

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Blog keeper

This blog is kept by Anitra Nelson, writer-producer of Servant of the Revolution, which played from 21 July through to 1 August 2009, at the Mechanics Institute Performing Arts Centre in Brunswick. Servant of the Revolution is a work of creative nonfiction, and this production was directed by Brenda Addie. The play is based on historical fact — that communist revolutionary Karl Marx secretly fathered an illegitimate child borne by his wife's servant, Lenchen (Helene Demuth) — who is played by Julianne Donovan. Marx's collaborator and best friend Engels — played by Ray Tiernan — pretended to be the father, and the child Freddy was fostered out at three weeks old. Well, that's the backstory, the nonfiction. But what is creative, imaginary, about the work? It takes the point of view of the historical character we know least about, Lenchen. What kind of relationship did she and Marx have? What kind of tensions were caused in the household?