2008 Woodie Awards
A Crazy Play for Crazy People
Jesse Hockersmith
Issue date: 2/6/08 Section: Culture
In the play Marat/Sade, the infamous Marquis de Sade "directs" a cast of mental asylum inmates in his vision of the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat, a journalist and revolutionary.
The production takes place in post-revolutionary France where Michael Thomas directs an ensemble cast in the confining setting of the Asylum of Charenton. The audience is transported to 1808, set behind bars, and made to feel that they are in the make-shift stage in the bathhouse of the asylum.
Jean-Paul Marat can be seen as the French equivalent to Thomas Paine, publishing and distributing revolutionary literature before the revolution. The Marquis de Sade was a French Nobleman and author of extremely controversial literature. In short, he is where the term "Sadism" originates from.
This "play-inside-a-play" is not a conventional musical. There is an instrumental trio and a chorus, but the songs don't always move the plot along. Often, the songs are just interruptions by the mentally ill cast. Some of the patients even abandon the script and go crazy. Several times in the play, the asylum's director must step in to restore order.
Charlie Heinberg, a patient in the play, said, "The nature of being a patient in an asylum, and the 'play-inside-a-play,' allows us a lot of freedom to be creative in the moment."
Silas Knight, a Humboldt State University and Dell' Arte graduate, plays the anxious and sex-crazed Duperret. "There's always something happening on stage. As mental patients we can be unique and creative," he said. "No two shows are exactly the same."
In essence, the play is about the intersection of an individual's actions and society's actions in terms of power, strife, and revolution. The dialogues between Sade and Marat are the discourse of each side's wants and needs. Sade represents the individual's desires for freedom, often speaking of imagination and free thought. Marat stands for the society's need of freedom, by breaking down the class structure through revolution.
The production takes place in post-revolutionary France where Michael Thomas directs an ensemble cast in the confining setting of the Asylum of Charenton. The audience is transported to 1808, set behind bars, and made to feel that they are in the make-shift stage in the bathhouse of the asylum.
Jean-Paul Marat can be seen as the French equivalent to Thomas Paine, publishing and distributing revolutionary literature before the revolution. The Marquis de Sade was a French Nobleman and author of extremely controversial literature. In short, he is where the term "Sadism" originates from.
This "play-inside-a-play" is not a conventional musical. There is an instrumental trio and a chorus, but the songs don't always move the plot along. Often, the songs are just interruptions by the mentally ill cast. Some of the patients even abandon the script and go crazy. Several times in the play, the asylum's director must step in to restore order.
Charlie Heinberg, a patient in the play, said, "The nature of being a patient in an asylum, and the 'play-inside-a-play,' allows us a lot of freedom to be creative in the moment."
Silas Knight, a Humboldt State University and Dell' Arte graduate, plays the anxious and sex-crazed Duperret. "There's always something happening on stage. As mental patients we can be unique and creative," he said. "No two shows are exactly the same."
In essence, the play is about the intersection of an individual's actions and society's actions in terms of power, strife, and revolution. The dialogues between Sade and Marat are the discourse of each side's wants and needs. Sade represents the individual's desires for freedom, often speaking of imagination and free thought. Marat stands for the society's need of freedom, by breaking down the class structure through revolution.
Be the first to comment on this story