Almost twenty years after the French Revolution, the Marquis de Sade, shut away in the Charenton Asylum, uses drama therapy to direct his fellow inmates in a play based on the murder of Jean-Paul Marat. Little by little, as the events that led to Marat’s murder unfold on the “stage”, the line between performance and reality blurs and the play becomes a biting and timely comment on the Revolution and the conflict between individual freedom and historical and social duty.
The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum at Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (to give the full title of the play) was written by Peter Weiss in 1963. This important political work, which follows in the footsteps of Brecht, examines the idea of revolution and its consequences through one of the most decisive periods in world history. The production, directed by Efi Theodorou, will examine the associations that we bring to this sensitive but always topical subject today. She is assisted in her work by a cast and crew that combine talent and experience.