MARAT/SADE:
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

UK, 1967, 116 minutes, Colour.
Patrick Magee, Ian Richardson, Michael Williams, Glenda Jackson, Clifford Rose, Freddie Jones.
Directed by Peter Brook.

The Marat/Sade was a play by Eastern European author, Peter Weiss, an author in the theatre of cruelty tradition of the sixties. By devising a play within a play in an asylum, he has a range of levels to communicate to his 20th century audience about human nature and society. By making the revolutionary Marat and the notorious author the Marquis de Sade the main protagonists, he has opportunities for discussions of power, tyranny, violence, sexuality? By having insane people speak the lines he has allowed a range of observation and devices to highlight the ironies of his themes.

The play was successfully portrayed on the stage by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The director was Peter Brook, one of the noted British stage directors of the sixties and seventies. (His films include Lord of the Flies 1963, Tell Me Lies, an anti-Vietnam war film with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1968 and King Lear with Paul Scofield 1971). The Royal Shakespeare Company works very well in this filmed version of their stage performance. Each of the actors and actresses has a commanding presence and excellent diction for communication of complex actions and speeches. Ian Richardson is excellent as Marat, Patrick Magee, who has appeared in a number of films, including A Clockwork Orange, is the steely de Sade. This was Glenda Jackson's first film and shows her commanding presence. The play was a piece of experimental theatre and the film is an excellent example of cinematic techniques for experimental cinema.

1. The overall impact of this film? The kind of audience it was made for? For what purpose?

2. The contribution of the author - imagination, language? fable? Didactic? The contrived piece of theatre, the distancing or the audience and yet their involvement? The devices for this? His Eastern European background? Revolution, social concern? The techniques of the theatre of cruelty? The impact of an experience of cruelty?

3. The contribution of the Royal Shakespeare Company? The staging of the play, the acting skills, mime? The recitation and diction of the words? Their presence and stage impact? The individual styles of acting, their contribution, the ensemble work?

4. The film as a filmed play? The use of the stage and the setting? The 1808 audience and the cinema audience identifying with them? The officials and their presence as an audience within the play? The addressing, especially by the M.C. of the theatre audience and the cinema audience? The invitation to respond? The set - the area of the asylum, the bars, the holes in the floor and their covers? The costumes of the aristocracy, of the inmates of the asylum? The various theatrical devices for symbols, for example the buckets of blood, the cabbage head of the king, Charlotte Corday's hair as a whip? The contribution of mime?

5. The background of the asylum and the comments on therapy? The 20th century language about asylums and therapy transferred to the 19th century? Theories of the treatment of the insane, for example, hydrotherapy? The need for the inmates of the asylum to act out their aggressions and phobias, psychodrama? The nature of insanity? The threats of the guards and the control? The mayhem at the end?

6. The governor of the asylum and his style, his continued address to the audience, his suave and patronizing manner? The ladies and their patronising manner? His wife and her sumptuous dress, the daughter and her immaturity, preoccupation with sexuality? The cups of tea during the performance? Their involvement? The governor's political friends and the comments during the play? His continued interventions, his censoring of the material and his discussions with de Sade?

7. The personality of de Sade and his reputation, his presence in the asylum, his writing of the play, his way with words, ideas and their opposites? His final comment about the play and its exploration of ideas and their tensions, his inability to finish? His creative work, his discussions especially with Marat and their content, his monologues to the audience especially with his description of the man torn from limb to limb, his being whipped by Charlotte Corday? His cynical approach and his enjoyment of the final mayhem?

8. The choosing of insane people to perform the roles of historical characters? The irony in their choice, the introduction by the M.C.? The double focus on the personality and the person portrayed - for example, Charlotte Corday with her sleeping sickness, the straitjacketed man performing the role of the priest?

9. The background of the French Revolution - the attitude of the playwright for the Revolution, against? The number of deaths? Egalitarian theories and comments? Marat's justification of the Revolution, the principles, people not understanding them, the many deaths, the growing corruption within the government, the executions of the members of the government? The criticism of the French status quo? The political background, the religious background? As exemplified in the executions and the buckets of blood and their colours? The reaction of the ordinary people to the Revolution - the chorus and their song of wanting revolution now? The comments on the aristocrats and their deaths and their not bothering about the deaths of so many people and the fact that they ought to be able to accept their own executions? The irony of comments made on the Revolution from insane characters performing a play 15 years afterwards?

10. The Napoleonic period, the aftermath of the Revolution and its being no better than before the Revolution? Government corruption as illustrated in the Survey of History 1793-1808? The significance of the date of the play, 1808? The picture of Napoleon at the end and the M.C's putting it over the people and the Revolution breaking out again?

11. The audience's knowledge of the historical Marat and his place in the Revolution? The actor performing this role - his sores and sitting in the bath? Marat's illness and his needing to be soothed? Marat and his nobility of ideal and yet his butchery? How much of him was revealed in his speeches? His discussion about his extreme attitudes compared with those of de Sade? The significance of his being in the bath and being helped by Simone? His discussions with her, his wanting to write his declaration? The significance of his nightmare and the cinematic devices used to portray this? The Survey of History before his death? The significance of his death, the death of a tyrant?

12. The girl with sleeping sickness acting as Charlotte Corday? Glenda Jackson's style of acting, diction, singing? Charlotte Corday and her background from Caen? Her discussion about the anti-Marat forces there? Her letter to Marat? The three visits and her plan? The significance of her song and its sweetness and yet its comment about different interpretations of love and death? The sequence of her whipping de Sade with her hair? Her killing off Marat and her later execution? Her assistant and the fact that he was the womanising madman? His aristocratic look? His breaking out and attacking people and falling into the holes? The historical role of the helper of Charlotte Corday and his execution? The madman and his final attack on the aristocratic ladies?

13. The role of the M.C. and the audiences relying on him for information, the explanation of the inmates, the characters? His rhyming poetry and its point? The various devices used for his communication? its irony, his use of his eyes, his announcing of the various tableaux? His holding of Napoleon at the end, his being the observer to what was going on?

14. The role of the chorus, the four with their clown-like make-up, their grotesque appearance, their singing, leering, recitation? Their ensemble work? The variety of melodies in their singing? Their role within the drama, their final March of the Revolutionaries? The audience response to this device for involvement?

15. The priest and his revolutionary speeches, his rousing at the end? his being straitjacketed, his lines being censored?

16. The guards standing by during the recitation, their participation at the end and their being attacked? The nuns and their brutality, the prisoners turning on them and attempted rape?

17. The highlighting of the other prisoners by close-up and group shots? Their presence in the asylum, treatment, suffering? Their songs about Marat as hero, wanting revolution now, the copulation song?

18. The build-up to the new revolution at the end? The aristocracy behind the bars with the inmates, their patronising tone, their not realising their danger, the uprising and the final shots behind the bars?

19. The effect of this kind of theatrical experience? How well was it transferred to the screen, a different kind of experience?

20. Themes of madness and sanity, therapy, cure, power and revolution, violence? The use of ironies for audience experience of and understanding of human nature and society?