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

This edition starts with a wonderful introduction/essay by Peter Brook, the English theatre and film director. Not only does he analyze the play and its reception but tackles the topic of what makes theatre good, in general.

The play itself is one of Sade's swan songs from imprisonment at Charenton, the final imprisonment and the place of his death. In it, the imaginary meeting between the Marquis and Marat is a departure point for Sade, who had said, "It is not my mode of thought that has caused my misfortunes, but the mode of thought of others", to feel resentment over his own condition:

"Give up Marat
You said yourself nothing can be achieved by
scribbling
Long ago I abandoned my masterpiece a roll of paper
in my dungeon years ago
It show more vanished when the Bastille fell
it vanished as everything written
everything thought and planned
will disappear."

and echo the French soul's buyer's remorse over buying revolution heavily seasoned with violence:

"We're all so clogged with dead ideas
passed from generation to generation
that even the best of us don't know the way out
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 keeps his mistress
He [pointing] keeps his garden
He [pointing] keeps his estate
He keeps his country house
He keeps his factories
This man couldn't part with his shipyards
This one kept his army
and that one keeps his king"

Marat and Sade both saw the need for revolutionary change and in answering the call, they were killed by the demons they themselves helped to summon:

"...you came one day to the Revolution because you saw the most important vision
That our circumstances must be changed fundamentally
and without these changes everything we try to do must fail" show less

“We're all free and equal to die like dogs”

Every death even the cruelest death
drowns in the total indifference of Nature
Nature herself would watch unmoved
if we destroyed the entire human race
I hate Nature
this passionless spectator this unbreakable iceberg-face
that can bear everything
this goads us to greater and greater acts

Once and for all
the idea of glorious victories
won by the glorious army
must be wiped out
Neither side is glorious
On either side they're just frightened men messing their pants
and they all want the same thing
Not to lie under the earth
but to walk upon it
without crutches.

I saw this play years ago, and I still remember it as one of the most powerful plays I've ever encountered on the stage. In all truth, I wasn't sure how well it would hold up in a simple reading, but the themes and language are as powerful and hardhitting as I remember. Of course, the visuals came back to me as I read Weiss's work, so I can't be sure how well the work translates to a reader unfamiliar with the staged production. I can say that, as a creative play on history that interacts with true personalities and philosophies and histories taken directly from the past, this play is unsurpassable, and worth every effort to produce. I've heard there's a phenomenal dvd production of the play, and I plan on looking it up before fully show more committing to teaching this text--but, in the meantime, if you're a reader of plays or looking for works to produce, you should read this. It may be based in history, but its power and ideas are as relevant now as they were upon Weiss's writing. Absolutely recommended. show less

A brilliant look at revolution and corruption. Because of this play, I will be researching and reading Sade for years.

I like my plays with more plot. But this was very moving. Dischordant and confusing and ikky, but moving...

Does what a play should do--asks political questions in an unforgettable context. I saw a college production, and it was transforming. This version came with the RSC LP recording, which I no longer have. Includes Richard Peaslee's tunes for the songs at the back of the book.

Sein neues Theaterstück, das sich eng an historische Fakten hält, auf authentisches Material sich gründet und doch von einem historischen Stück so weit wie nur irgend möglich entfernt ist. Leben und Tod Jean Paul Marats werden als Spiel im Spiel, als Theater im Theater, dreizehn Jahre nach seinem Tode im Irrenhaus von Charenton dargestellt. Regie führt der Marquis de Sade.