Marat/Sade

What are the rules for defining outsiders? How fine is the line that separates the sane from the insane? This Tony award winning play, otherwise known by its full title, 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, unveils a slice of history by depicting the early 19th century asylum. During that time, two things were en vogue for French elite. The belief was that insanity could be purged through art; patients in asylums were, therefore, encouraged to participate in all manner of artistic activities, including art, dancing, and theatre. Second, the plays that were put on by the inmates were staged for audiences made up of curiosity-seeking upper class French society, eager to see the insane “perform” for them.

In Marat/Sade, the Marquis de Sade, incarcerated at the asylum of Charonton outside Paris for his hedonism and sexual cruelty, directs the inmates in a play addressing the infamous murder of French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat by Charlotte Corday. With meticulous care, the Marquis has selected inmates to play the roles of Marat, Corday, and other figures of the French Revolution. The inmates of Charenton follow the intoxicating lead of the Marquis and toe the line of decency and control as they address not only the bloody and fraught Revolution of 15 years earlier, but also the oppressive and sinister situation they find themselves in as marginalized members of society.