Introduction
On April 19th, the famous play ‘Marat/Sade was staged at one of the local theatres. Those who attended including myself agree that it was indeed an exhilarating experience. It contains another play within it. Marat/ Sade were first penned down by renowned playwright Peter Weiss in the year 1963 and was first written in the German language before being translated to several other global languages.
The play forwards a question to the audience: Is lasting change achievable through revolution? As mentioned earlier, the play is actually a play within a play. Its setting is in the 19th Century France where the Asylum of Charentum has recently become a theater hotspot for staging controversial plays. On one particular night, the theatre stages a very controversial play. It is a play that recalls the 1793 murder of Jean Paul Marat, a great French revolutionist. However the asylum director, Marquis de Sade, who is also the director, makes some modifications in the play of how the murder actually took place. This is because he is actually a supporter of the Napoleon administration and believes that the play is actually an endorsement or exhibition of his revolutionist and patriotic views. However, the actors who are actually the asylum patients and staff do not share his sentiments and speak lines that the director had tried to suppress. They sometimes even deviate from the play’s script and to give personal opinions.
The play was very interesting indeed. The cast of the play of the play who were actually members of the Phoenix Players Drama Group definitely did justice to the initial play written by Peter Weiss,. It was all about artistic expression freedom. It was however plagued with a lot of graphic and violent scenes, for example, there was a scene that depicted de Sade being whipped from own instructions. The play had a total character list of twenty performers who were appropriately dressed in deranged attire. This cast was ever present in the play and their acting and was comparable to none. The direction and production aspect of the play was superb. Throughout the play, there was a lot of accompanying music that was tailor made to add more social, political and historical commentary to the play. There was also a lot of interactiveness between the production and the audience.
I would recommend everyone who professes to be a fanatic of visual art to make a point of seeing the play.
