Marat/Sade
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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What I have to say cannot be said in writing --Charlotte Corday in Marat/Sade (1964) |
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The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (1964, German: Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats dargestellt durch die Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton unter Anleitung des Herrn de Sade), usually shortened to Marat/Sade, is a 1963 play by Peter Weiss. The work was first published in German.
Incorporating dramatic elements characteristic of both Antonin Artaud and Bertolt Brecht, it is a depiction of class struggle and human suffering that asks whether true revolution comes from changing society or changing oneself.
The play premiered in Germany in 1964 and opened on Broadway on December 27, 1965 and closed on April 30, 1966 after 145 performances.
Incorporating dramatic elements characteristic of both Artaud and Brecht (a combination some find paradoxical) it is a bloody and unrelenting depiction of human struggle and suffering which asks whether true revolution comes first from changing society or changing one's self.
The 1967 film version, the opening titles use the long version of the plays name as shown above but, like the play it is shortened to Marat/Sade on the DVD cover. It stars Ian Richardson as Marat and Patrick Magee as Sade, and features Glenda Jackson in one of her earliest significant film roles, as a narcoleptic inmate portraying Charlotte Corday.
Plot synopsis
Set in the historical Charenton Asylum, now d’Hôpital Esquirol, Marat/Sade is almost entirely a "play within a play". The main story takes place on July 13, 1808, after the French Revolution; the play directed by de Sade within the story takes place during the Revolution, in the middle of 1793, culminating in the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat (which took place on July 13, 1793), then quickly brings the audience up to date (1808). The actors are the inmates of the asylum, and the nurses and supervisors occasionally step in to restore order. The bourgeois director of the hospital, Coulmier, supervises the performance, accompanied by his wife and daughter. He is a supporter of the post-revolutionary government led by Napoleon, in place at the time of the production, and believes the play he has organised to be an endorsement of his patriotic views. His patients, however, have other ideas, and they make a habit of speaking lines he had attempted to suppress, or deviating entirely into personal opinion. Suffice it to say that they, as people who came out of the revolution no better than they went in, are not entirely pleased with the course of events as they fell.
The infamous Marquis de Sade, the man after whom sadism is named, did indeed direct performances in Charenton with other inmates there, encouraged by Coulmier. De Sade is a main character in the play, conducting many philosophical dialogues with Marat and observing the proceedings with sardonic amusement. He remains detached and cares little for practical politics and the inmates' talk of right and justice; he simply stands by as an observer and an advocate of his own nihilistic and individualist beliefs. One of the most powerful scenes of the play depicts him being whipped on his own instructions, and such bold scenes are not alone, nor confined to the predilections of the Marquis himself.
Musical score
Marat/Sade is a play with music. The use of music follows the approach of Brecht, whereby the songs comment on themes and issues of the play. Unlike a traditional musical format, the songs do not further the plot or expositional development of character in the play. By contrast they often add an alienation effect, interrupting the action of the play and offering historical, social and political commentary. Richard Peaslee composed music for the original English-language production of Marat/Sade directed by Peter Brook. Although there is no official score to the play in any language, the success of the Brook-directed Royal Shakespeare Company production and film made the Peaslee score popular for English-language productions. Sections of the Peaslee score have been included in trade copies of the Geoffrey Skelton/Adrian Mitchell English version (based on the text used for the Royal Shakespeare Company productions). The full score is available from ECS Publishing/Galaxy Music Corporation. The original Royal Shakespeare Company production was so popular that folk singer Judy Collins recorded a medley of songs from the show on her album In My Life.
Recordings of the songs were made by the cast of the original Royal Shakespeare Company production and film. The first recording of the show was a three-LP set released in 1964 by Caedmon Records. This was a complete audio recording of the original London production. The second release was a single soundtrack album LP of the film score, released by Caedmon/United Artists Records.
The third release was a CD compilation of two 1966 Brook/Peaslee Royal Shakespeare Company productions: Marat/Sade and US, released by Premier Recordings. The songs included on this 1992 CD were:
- Homage to Marat
- The Corday Waltz
- Song and Mime of Corday's Arrival in Paris
- The People's Reaction
- Those Fat Monkeys
- Poor Old Marat
- One Day It Will Come to Pass
- Poor Marat in Your Bathtub Seat
- Poor Old Marat (Reprise)
- Copulation Round
- Fifteen Glorious Years (interpolating the "Marseillaise")
- Finale
This track listing omits Royal Anthem (which appears on all other recordings) and does not specifically mention The Tumbrel Song either individually or as a part of Song and Mime of Corday's Arrival in Paris. The cast of this recording includes Patrick Magee, Glenda Jackson and Freddie Jones. (The accompanying production, US, is about an American soldier "zappin' the [Viet] Cong" in the Vietnam War.)
See also
