TODAY’S CREATIVE LOVING PROFILE
Has Carolina Actors' Studio Theatre gone crazy? No, but its newest production (with a really long title), 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, is devoted to lunatics. This play-within-a-play, which can be shortened to the titled Marat/Sade (you know, so you can remember it), was written by Peter Weiss of Germany in 1963 and made into a film adaptation in 1967. It revolves around a prisoner at Charenton Asylum who was allowed to write and direct plays -- including one set during the French Revolution and the 1793 assassination of Jean-Paul Marat -- for patients to perform in for therapy. Let's just hope they don't really have a knife -- that is how Marat was assassinated -- because that would be scary. Continues through Nov. 21. $20-$40. Oct. 22-24, 8 p.m.; Oct. 29-31, 8 p.m.; Nov. 5-7, 8 p.m.; Nov. 12-14, 8 p.m.; Nov. 19-21, 8 p.m. Carolina Actors' Studio Theatre, 1118 Clement Ave. 704-455-8542. www.nccast.com.
COMMENTS
RE: THEATER: Marat/Sade
Posted by r0ckyracc00n on 10.20.09 @ 04:14 PM
The prisoner who is allowed to direct in none other than the Marquis de Sade, that charming sociopath who gave us the word "sadism".
In reality de Sade was in imprisoned in both the Bastille and at Charenton Asylum for many years. While in Charenton he was given many freedoms not provided to the other inmates including the privilege to direct plays starring other inmates.
The films version is pretty far out there... Sex, violence, singing, dancing. Should make for an interesting theater experience.