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 (or Marat Sade)
Writers Book Mall - Books, Magazines, and Software for Writers
writersbookmall.com Info and Reviews
Home / Books / 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 (or Marat Sade)
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 (or Marat Sade) - Customer Reviews, Information, Ratings, and Prices
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 (or Marat Sade)
This extraordinary play, which swept Europe before coming to America, is based on two historical truths: the infamous Marquis de Sade was confined in the lunatic asylum of Charenton, where he staged plays; and the revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat was stabbed in a bathtub by Charlotte Corday at the height of the Terror during the French Revolution. But this play-within-a-play is not historical drama. Its thought is as modern as today's police states and The Bomb; its theatrical impact has everywhere been called a major innovation. It is total theatre: philosophically problematic, visually terrifying. It engages the eye, the ear, and the mind with every imaginable dramatic device, technique, and stage picture, even including song and dance. All the forces and elements possible to the stage are fused in one overwhelming experience. This is theatre such as has rarely been seen before. The play is basically concerned with the problem of revolution. Are the same things true for the masses and for their leaders? And where, in modern times, lie the borderlines of sanity?
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
buy this:
This is one of the greatest plays of the 20th Century. Read it. If you can find a DVD of the Royal Shakespeare Company production of it with Glenda Jackson as Charlotte Corday, but it. If you are a composer, make an opera out of it. It is a wonderful, terrible, terrifying piece of theater, and when Corday remarks regarding the guillotine, "They say, when the head is cut from the body...", it is one of the most frightening, wonderful stage moments in history, up there with Williams, with Brecht. Hell, with... more info
Different From the UK Edition:
While certainly a brilliant play, I should mention that this edition differs slightly from the edition I used while in the United Kingdom. Aside from the typical spelling changes, certain words were changed slightly in meaning (Coulmier's "This is outright defeatism!" vs. "...outright pacifism!"). The biggest crime, however, was a drastic reduction of the final scene. The UK edition features an extended Epilogue, including an explanation from Sade, the "resurrection" and counter-explanation of Marat,... more info
THE TITLE SAYS A LOT:
I found the title of Peter Weiss's play so interesting that I bought his play on an impulse. I half expected it to be unreadably pretentious, but in fact I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would love to see it actually performed, but I live over a thousand miles from where that might be happening. One advantage of reading the play is that the author's comments are available. I knew very little beyond the superficial about Sade or Marat, so I was somewhat surprised to discover that Sade actually wrote plays... more info
Provocative and Mind Stimulating Material:
Maybe you have seen the film "Quills" and it has sparked an interest in you about the Marquis de Sade. Or maybe you are a history buff and are interested in the time of the French revolution, or perhaps you just love a really good thought-provoking play. If any of those things holds your interest you are in for a really marvelous read. 'The Persecution and Assassination of Jean Paul Marat as performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under The Direction of Marquis de Sade"(by Peter Weiss) is the... more info
Privacy policy: we don't collect information
about visitors except for the standard technical server logs. We don't send unsolicited emails. We don't
sell the information that we don't collect about you to anyone. When you follow
links to other sites, their privacy policies apply. Thanks for visiting!
