The Salon of Economics
A play in five scenes
Characters
David Ricardo – sober theorist, speaks concisely, emphatically, almost like a maths teacher
- Karl Marx – passionate, boisterous, with powerful gestures
- Thomas Robert Malthus – sombre, solemn, with the tone of a preacher
- John Stuart Mill – calm, conciliatory, clear and moral
- Alfred Marshall – analytical, level-headed, with an instructive tone
- John Maynard Keynes – elegant, ironic, moves casually, almost dance-like
- Schumpeter, Hayek, Sismondi – hecklers, designed as a chorus
Stage design
A Victorian salon: dark wood panelling, heavy curtains, a log fire, globe, leather armchairs. Manuscripts, quills and glasses of wine lie on the tables. The light is warm, dominated by candles and the fireplace.
Scene I – The cloth and the wine
Stage direction: Ricardo stands by the globe, cane in hand. He speaks without making eye contact, staring at the map as if it were an equation. Marx sits restlessly, drumming his fingers, ready to explode.
Ricardo (dryly, with clear emphasis, pointing with his cane):
England – cloth. Portugal – wine. Exchange. Advantage for both. It’s that simple.
Marx (jumps up, voice loud, gestures widely):
That simple? You forget the worker! He spins the cloth, he presses the wine – and starves. Your mathematics is a veil over blood and sweat.
Malthus (rises slowly, speaks solemnly, both hands raised like a preacher):
You argue about bread and wine, but hunger remains. The population is growing faster than food supplies. Misery is no accident, it is a law of nature.
Stage direction: Silence. Only the crackling of the fireplace. The characters look down at the floor, shocked.
Scene II – Hope and Illusion
Mill (steps forward, calm, palms open to the audience):
Mr Malthus, you paint too bleak a picture. Progress is possible. Education, institutions, democracy – they can alleviate poverty.
Marx (cutting, pointing his finger at Mill):
Alleviate, yes – but never cure. You polish chains, Mr Mill. But chains remain chains.
Marshall (stands up slowly, speaks like a lecturer, hands clasped behind his back):
The market is not a machine. It thrives on habits, trust, human psychology. We economists must understand people – not just numbers.
Stage direction: Mill nods thoughtfully, Marx snorts contemptuously, Malthus turns away as if he does not want to hear the conversation.
Scene III – The gentleman with the sherry
Stage direction: Suddenly, a door opens. A beam of light falls on Keynes, who casually enters with a glass of sherry. He walks slowly to the fireplace as if he were in his own home.
Keynes (ironically, voice slightly playful):
Oh, the voices of the 19th century! I come from the 20th – wars, stock market crashes, armies of unemployed. Believe me: markets do not heal. Without the state: ruin.
Ricardo (stamps his cane on the floor, indignant):
And you believe civil servants can calculate better than markets?
Keynes (takes a sip, leans back relaxed against the fireplace):
Not better at calculating – but at acting when inaction kills. During the Depression, waiting didn’t help, only intervention did. The state – the doctor of capitalism.
Marx (laughs bitterly, raises both arms):
A doctor who nurses the disease! Mr Keynes, you are not the healer – you are the personal physician of dying capital.
Stage direction: Keynes smiles charmingly, as if he has heard the accusation a thousand times before.
Scene IV – The hecklers
Stage direction: Light on the second row, where three figures are sitting. They speak alternately, sometimes all at once.
Schumpeter (almost ecstatic, arms spread wide):
You talk of balance! But capitalism is destruction – creative destruction! The entrepreneur tears down the old and creates the new.
Hayek (cutting, with raised index finger):
And woe betide the state that believes it can control this chaos. Planning is presumption. Freedom is order – even if it looks like chaos.
Sismondi (quietly, pleadingly, stepping forward):
But who protects the people who are drowning in chaos? Without morality, your market will become a slaughterhouse.
Scene V – The Echo
Stage direction: Everyone steps forward into a semicircle. Each calls out their line into the darkness of the auditorium, first individually, then overlapping, until a chorus emerges. The light flickers, the fireplace goes out.
Ricardo (loud, authoritative): Trade is reason!
Marx (thundering): Capital is domination!
Malthus (gloomy, solemn): Nature is limitation!
Mill (clear, moral): Reform is duty!
Marshall (calm, analytical): Markets are organisms!
Keynes (ironic, almost dance-like): The state is doctor!
Schumpeter (enthusiastic): Destruction is creation!
Hayek (sharp): Freedom is chaos!
Sismondi (pleading): Morality is necessity!
Stage direction: The voices overlap, become louder, chaotic, then abruptly silent. Only a faint echo remains. The lights go out.
Curtain.
KK
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