Marat/Sade

Weiss' work is known to be a classic and both the adaptation, the "story within a story" and how it is actually put into a movie (a play originally) is brilliant. Very well done indeed. Not only is the story original and well carried through, but it provides a very interesting insight into the interpretation of two deep minds with diffeerent views. Although it benefits the reader / watcher if they have done some background reading not only on Sade and Marat, but also on Libertinism and the French Revolution more generally, such research is well worth the time for the full end effect ot yields. And in any event, having such understanding should be common knowledge anyway.

The play copy that I bought celebrates Weiss's drama of the Marquis de Sade. He had extraordinary depraved ideas of sexual pleasure. For this, despite being an aristocrat in the privileged French society of pre-Revolutionary France he was incarcerated in a lunatic asylum. It was there that he created dramas for the inmates to participate in. They never actually enacted the story of Marat's murder in his bath by Charlotte Corday but they might have done. It became a celebrated drama in the 1960s when Peter Brook directed it with Glenda Jackson in the cast. However Weiss was not interested in a recreation of the past but was seeking much more.And there we enter the Theatre of Cruelty of Antonin Artaud.

Written by Weiss in response to the destruction of Europe by Nazi ideology, this play examines what it is to be driven by revolutionary ideals. It is funny, irreverent, playful and deeply disturbing because it is rooted in a madness that follows no logic.

In good condition

Prompt delivery. Item as described

I'll admit, Marat/Sade is one of the most complex plays ever written, but it is a dream for any actor! I'm currently playing the Marquis de Sade in the play, and i've never been so challeneged in all my life! For the majority of the roles, not only do you need to play the character, you need to play the inmate of a lunatic asylum playing the character! For example, the inmate playing Jean-Paul Marat suffers from Paranoia, which must be taken into consideration during characterisation.If you want to get the essence of the play, watch the DVD of Peter Brook's highly acclaimed RSC production. However, the play is so personal and powerful, the DVD does it no justice. Although the english translation still holds the power and Artaudian beauty (if that's a word!), it's not a patch on the German version. Trust me, i've seen extracts from the original production directed by Weiss himself - it's sheer brilliance!To sum up - Marat/Sade has everything you could ask for. Whippings, Sex Maniacs, Aristocrats, Lunatics and even uses Commedia Dell'Arte techniques for the Four Singers! Artaud would have been very proud...