Word: sade
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...cast members of the Mainstage production of Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade shriek, jabber and carry on. As the inmates of the asylum of Charenton, they perform a play within a play. The Persecution and Assassination of Jean Paul Marat, written by one of their own number, the Marquis de Sade...
...Marat Sade thus presents a dual challenge to its cast--they must portray both lofty historical figures and loonies at the same time. The actors attack this problem with great skill, capturing the madness and hysteria of France's Reign of Terror as well as of the grimmer episodes of the 20th century. Directed by Maja Hellmold, this Marat/Sade suceeds in drawing us into an asylum that is a microcosm of our own crazy world...
...some ways, the most impressive acting comes from the "troupe," the group of inmates who do not have specific roles in Sade's play, but behave as a sort of raving chorus. Like naughty children, they play leapfrog, poke each other's middles, and pull each other's hair. They pick at their noses and masturbate, they jeer at actors who forget their lines...
This is Weiss's key point. Man is a brute and he always will be; his ideological fervor is only inspired by latent lust and violence. As Sade himself quips, "People join revolutions when the adrenaline builds up." The radical soapbox priest, Jacques Roux, is played by a vociferous, apoplectic inmate (Kristen Gasser) who is restrained by a gag. Aroused by Corday's ghoulish description of a beheading she witnessed in Paris, the patients play at guillotining each other, tossing about a large red ball--a dismembered head--and tittering like demons...
...same token, Sade's scandalous love of physical torment overshadows his political convictions. In the famous whipping scene, for example, he strips to the waist and orders his hands bound. Summoning Corday to his side, he provides her with a whip and drawls: "And even now I should like to have this beauty here, who stands there so expectantly, and let her beat me while I talk to you about the revolution." The audience and other inmates gasp in horror and anticipation. Sade proceeds to crumple, groan and writhe on the floor, creating a sensation but garbling every word...