Way back in the ‘70’s, there was one avant-garde theater in Atlanta, located, fittingly enough, in an old warehouse in the downtown area, with the subject name. For me, seeing every play produced there was de rigueur, and that is where I first saw this memorable play. I decided to read it this time. In part, and no doubt the current Presidential campaign is serving as a catalyst, it raises that frequent quip: Are the only sane ones inside the asylum? I found that so many of the lines still reverberated across the decades.
The play (which has also been made into a movie) is based on the true events that occurred in France in 1793, during the period of the French revolution. As the full title indicates, the play depicts the assassination of one of the leaders and firebrands of the revolution, Jean-Paul Marat, by Charlotte Corday, who was of the Girondist faction within the revolution, and had come from Caen, in Normandy, to do the deed. She acted alone. She knifed him in his bath, where he had to sit for hours due to a debilitating skin condition. She was guillotined four days later.
Peter Weiss, the plays author, has the above events portrayed – brilliantly in my opinion – by actors playing the part of the inmates of the insane asylum at Charenton, which used to exist, outside of Paris. In the play, the reenactment of the assassination is directed by the Marquis de Sade (yes, the one whose name now denotes painful sexual acts), who, in real life, spent 13 years incarcerated in Charenton. The play is set in 1808, and nominally at least, the events are well-settled “ancient history,” but many of the lines in the play were relevant to the political and social conditions of 1808 … as well as 2016.
Weiss skillfully uses three different “overall views” of the action, which are woven together, presenting contradictory points of view with delicious irony. There is a “Herald,” who omniscience of the action fulfills the same role as the ancient Greek chorus. One of the Herald’s quips, appropriate today as it was in 1808: “Work for and trust the powerful few, what’s best for them is best for you.” “Coulmier” is the asylum’s director, a “liberal” barely 5% to the left of center. He states that the play will be good therapy for the inmates… but, of course, they are not allowed to say anything too radical, and he is repeatedly rebuking de Sade for including portions that “they had agreed to cut.” One rebuke: “That’s enough. We’re living in eighteen hundred and eight and the names which were dragged through the gutter then have been deservedly rehabilitated by the command of the Emperor.” And there is the overview of de Sade himself as he tries to direct the action.
Marat and de Sade are foils for presenting different points of view on the French revolution (as well as critiquing today’s society). One of Marat’s laments: “We invented the Revolution but we don’t know how to run it. Look, everyone wants to keep something from the past… a souvenir of the old regime… this man decides to keep a painting… this one couldn’t part with his shipyard… this one kept his army, and that one keeps his king, and so we stand here and write into the declaration of the rights of man the holy right of property… we stand here more oppressed than when we began and they think that the revolution’s been won.” Or later, “And you still long to ape them those powered chimpanzees Necker Lafayette Talleyrand.”
The music is great too, with witty verses. The classic that has reverberated across the decades: “And what’s the point of a revolution without general copulation copulation copulation.” Yes, ‘Make love, not war’ repackaged. A sentiment for our age too. 5-stars, plus.
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