Marat/Sade

Praised as "The best little theatre in Los Angeles," by the Los Angeles Times, the Knightsbridge Theatre and the National American Shakespeare Company present Peter Weiss’ 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, (more commonly known as Marat/Sade, English version by Geoffrey Skelton).

Marat/Sade is a beautifully intense and thought-provoking play that combines powerful language and realism with extraordinary physical movement and music. It is a play within a play, the present date being set in 1808 France in the famous yet controversial asylum of Charenton, in which the inmates present us with a story set in 1793 during the French Revolution. We witness the final day in the life of revolutionary, Jean-Paul Marat, who was assassinated by Charlotte Corday. The play within the play is written by the Marquis de Sade and is set in a bath house. We see Sade and Marat converse about life and death, sexuality, organized religion, the role of the government and the purpose of the revolution. In real life they never met, but Sade did speak at Marat’s funeral. Weiss remains mostly accurate with historical facts, but certainly alters some aspects for theatrical purposes.