Word: marat
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Coulmier, the director of the asylum (Seth Richards) introduces the spectacle: his inmates, having been put under the direction of de Sade (David Levine), will be performing an `historical' play about Marat's murder for a public audience as proof of their `rehabilitation.' These inmates come from all walks of life: past revolutionaries, priests and vagrants. Tying the whole messy lot together is a herald (Adam Feldman), who, as the ringmaster for this crew of raving lunatics, introduces each scene as it happens in terse rhyme, prompts the players with their lines and constantly mediates between Coulmier and de Sade...
...Marat (Ross Benjamin) is shown lying in his tub as revolution tears up the countryside. Charlotte Corday (Winsome Brown) attempts to assassinate him, and the Marquis constantly drops down from his director's chair to challenge Marat's understanding of and dedication to the Revolution. The Marquis clearly has the upper hand here: it is he who is fully dressed and of strong body, whereas Marat lies rotting in a blood-stained bath; it is he who controls the actions of his cast; and it is he who has written the script...
...Marat starts with the support of his countrymen, but his motives for joining and ultimately leading the Revolution are slowly twisted at de Sade's beckoning. His supporters accuse him of joining the Revolution only after having failed to gain fame in the ancien regime, he is shown to be a loser and a power-hungry wretch. In the end, Marat himself is convinced by these torturers of his own base motives. He asks himself, "Each argument was true...and now...why does everything sound so false?" as they cheer him on sarcastically: "Marat for Dictator!" And all the while...
Benjamin's performance as Marat alternates between indifference and vehemence without reason. He expels his lines with lethargic volume, but does not quite seem to understand the import of his words. The three singers, played by Finn Moore Gerety, Jonathan Weinberg and Rebecca Boggs, are effective and solid, propelling the play forward with energy and style. The patients of the asylum are remarkable in creating boisterous chaos together and for sustaining their small ticks and twitches throughout the two-hour show...
...help but wonder whether or not the asylum pretext is a license to disregard the demands of serious acting. The publicity for this show set up something of a false expectation: It's not profound, decadent perversion we get from Marat Sade, but rather sustained novelty and a few snapshots of dementia, something to smile at and walk away from...