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

Written by Peter Weiss
Directed by Kent De Spain
Translation by Geoffrey Skelton
Verse Adaptation by Adrian Mitchell

Performances: February 23 & 24, March 1, 2, 3 at 8:00 p.m.
February 25, March 4 at 2:00 p.m.
Oscar G. Brockett Theatre

Tickets: $16 adults, $13 UT faculty & staff, $10 students available at the TPA Ticket Office, online at www.texasperformingarts.org or by phone at 477-6060. Get Tickets.

Media and Resources:

• Cast List
• Costume Renderings by Candida K. Nichols
• Director Information
• Lighting by Autum Casey
• Playwright Information
• Scene Renderings by Yvonne Boudreaux
• Synopsis

Synopsis:

Marat/Sade explodes an already explosive slice of history—the French Revolution and the turbulent years that followed. A play within a play, Marat/Sade is set in the asylum of Charenton on the outskirts of Paris, where the notorious hedonist the Marquis de Sade was an inmate in the early nineteenth century until his death in 1814. The Marquis, imprisoned for threatening public morals with his lewd writings, wrote plays at Charenton, plays that were fashionable among Paris's demimonde. Marat/Sade imagines one such play, performed by the inmates-sociopaths, schizophrenics, narcoleptics, and other societal rejects-with de Sade directing. We are in attendance on this particular occasion, alongside the asylum's bourgeois director, the Abbé de Coulmier, who cheerfully polices the production to maintain order and ensure the play does not unduly critique post-revolutionary society.

Sade's play picks relentlessly at the scab of revolutionary history, climaxing with the 1793 murder of the bloodthirsty journalist, Jean-Paul Marat. Marat was killed in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday, a Girondist determined to stop Marat and his revolutionary faction's "Reign of Terror." The Marquis de Sade's play is, in effect, a debate between Marat and Sade, pitting social revolution against individualism. The inmates at Charenton are at once cynical and naïve, as they clammer for more violence, even while recognizing they are no better off in the Napoleanic era than before the revolution. As we witness utopian expectations of humanity turn ruthless, Marat/Sade may seem, among other things, to be a commentary on the disappointing nature of revolution. But then we are reminded that our evening's entertainment is a vision of the world through one sadist's eyes. Ultimately, Weiss demands that we draw our own conclusions. He assaults us with competing extremes: Sade's extreme individualism, Marat's extreme radicalism, and even Monsieur Coulmier's extreme middle ground.

—Peter Malof, Dramaturg, PhD in Performance as Public Practice

Playwright: Peter Weiss (1916-1982)

Read a biography of Peter Weiss

Director: Kent De Spain

KENT DE SPAIN is recognized for his work as both a dance/multimedia artist and a researcher. He received his B.A. in Dance (1980) and M.A. in Choreography (1986) from U.C.L.A., and his Ed.D. in Dance Studies from Temple University (1997). He has taught and toured throughout the United States and beyond, including performances at Jacob's Pillow and Judson Church, and has performed for a number of choreographers, including being a guest artist with the Brazilian modern dance company Grupo Tran Chan, Kei Takei and Moving Earth, Lower Left, and the dance/theater troupe Ausdruckstanz. He has been the recipient of several major awards, including the Pew Fellowship in the Arts for Choreography and an Established Choreographers Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He also received a Performance Fellowship from the Philadelphia Repertory Development Initiative, which commissioned choreographer Ralph Lemon to create an original work, So this is the hero, for he and his partner Leslie Dworkin. Presently an Assistant Professor of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin, De Spain has taught master classes and workshops in the United States, Europe, and Asia, has been a Visiting Artist/Professor in Dance at Columbia College, University of Georgia, Oberlin College, U.C.L.A., and the University of North Carolina - Greensboro, and has been on the dance faculty at Temple University and Bryn Mawr College.

Cast:

Role	Actor
Marquis de Sade	Corey Jones
Jean-Paul Marat	Fajer Al-Kaisi
Simonne Evrard	Robbie Ann Darby
Duperret	Austin Bowerman
Jacques Roux	Simon Jon Provan
Herald	Blake DeLong
Coulmier	Dustin Wills
Coulmier's Wife	Michelle Cooper
Coulmier's Daughter	Emily Tindall
Rossignol	Natalie Wheeler
Cucurucu	Colum P. Morgan
Polpoch	Shane Lisius
Kokol	Leslie Horne
Male Nurses	Seith Kuhn, Dan Jones
Female Nuns	Elena Bennett, Lauren Thomspon
Patients	Anna Fugate, Chelsea Bunn, Lizzi Biggers, Maya Griffin, Harry Santiago, Matrex Kilgore, Matthew Satterfield, Hunter Smith
Harmonium	Lyn Koenning
Trumpet	John Vander Gheynst
Percussion	Trevor Detling
Guitar	Ryan Beavers
Flute	Thomas Poole
Flute (2/23 only)	Joshua Romatowski
Scene Design	Yvonne Boudreaux
Costume Design	Candida K. Nichols
Lighting Design	Autum Casey
Music Director	Lyn Koenning
Technical Director	Chad May
Stage Manager	Tanya Schurr
Assistant Stage Managers	Megan Griffith, Courtney Lejeune
Dramaturg	Clare Croft