Reviews 2011
Reviews 2011
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written by Peter Weiss, translated by Geoffrey Skelton, directed by Sarah Thorpe
Soup Can Theatre, Alumnae Theatre, Toronto
July 19-24, 2011
For its second production Soup Can Theatre bravely takes on Marat/Sade, one of the greatest and most difficult plays of the last century. Though focussed on the events of the French Revolution, the debates concerning the motives behind a popular rebellion, the flaws of capitalism and the futility of war all give the play immediate relevance. Ignoring the unevenness of the cast and some odd directorial decisions, we should be grateful that the present production demonstrates how the plays still sizzles with power.
German writer Peter Weiss’s 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, to use the play’s full English title, is a masterful fusion of the Brecht’s Epic Theatre with Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty. The play is based on the historical fact that the infamous Marquis de Sade (1740-1814), imprisoned in the insane asylum of Charenton from 1803 to 1814, wrote and directed plays to be performed by the inmates. The performance takes place in 1808 when France is a monarchy again with Napoleon in power. The subject of Sade’s play, however, is the assassination in 1793 of Jean-Paul Marat (born 1743), a leader of the French Revolution, by Charlotte Corday, a woman with Girondist, counter-revolutionary sympathies.
The play’s difficulty lies in the huge demands it makes on the performers. All the actors in Sade’s play are inmates of the asylum suffering from a wide variety of mental and neurological diseases. The performers must not only portray their characters as an inmate but portray that character portraying another character. Throughout the action there is a tension within each actor between performing the role as written and using the occasion for personal expression. Though a nihilist, Sade, as director, jumps on any deviation from his script, while Dr. Coulmier (1741-1818), who believes in theatre as form of enlightened therapy, objects when Sade’s script becomes objectionable or when certain patients become too unruly. The refrain sung by the actors throughout the play, “We want our revolution now,” also becomes a rallying cry for the inmates themselves.
Director Sarah Thorpe has given the play a Canadian slant that also makes it more complicated. Rather than having the performance take place at Charenton in 1808, she has it occur in 1957 at McGill University’s Allan Memorial Institute. She identifies Coulmier in Weiss’s play with Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron (1901-1967), who tried experiments using shock treatment, sleep deprivation and hallucinogens on patients without their consent. In the play she has a very effective scene where Coulmier/Cameron administers shock treatment to the disruptive patient who plays the former abbot Jacques Roux. Other than that, the text would have to be altered for Thorpe to work in any specific references to Cameron or to his CIA connections. In fact, she should consider writing a play devoted to the subject since it is so intriguing.
There is certainly no problem in updating the design to the 1950s. That’s done routinely with Shakespeare and Molière. Rather, the updating suddenly makes Sade’s identity unclear. In the original he is the real Sade and a contemporary with Coulmier in 1808. When the action is updated there are three possibilities for Sade: 1) this is still the real Sade who has somehow survived into the 20th century, 2) this a patient whose mania is to think he is Sade and has written a play, or 3) this merely a patient like the others assigned to play Sade, which makes us wonder who then is the author of the play about Marat? Thorpe give no clear answer which possibility she has chosen and it undermines the performance of Allan Michael Brunet. He tends to play the role as if #1 were true even though that choice turns the play into science fiction. It would have been better to allow the updated design and medical techniques speak for themselves and choose #2 as the best option.
A second problem with the direction is misconceiving the role of the Herald. Thorpe seems to view the Herald as similar to the sly, ironic Emcee in Cabaret. This allows Kat Letwin to clown around the stage with lots of nudge-nudge-wink-wink to the audience. It doesn’t help that when she shouts (much too frequently) her diction is unclear and we lose much of the exposition for the various scenes. Since the Herald is also one of the patients, she simply can’t behave the way she does. One factor that distinguishes sane people from insane people is that sane people have a sense of humour. Sane people can tell when something is absurd or not; insane people, unfortunately, cannot. Unlike here, in the original play the humour derives from the Herald not being aware that what he says does not suit what happens on stage.
In general, the cast varies in its ability to carry out the difficult task of playing a character who also plays a role, but there are notable standouts. Liam Morris is excellent as the feverish, paranoiac playing Marat. He maintains the disparity Weiss wanted of the contrast of the actor’s delivery with his words. Morris seems totally absorbed in other thoughts even when he argues with Sade on politics and morality. Similarly, Heather Marie Annis as an insomniac seems to be sleepwalking through her role a Corday, which is precisely the effect Weiss wants to achieve. His play asks to what extent people are aware of what they do and Corday provides the prime image of how ordinary, or even politically motivated people, really go through life.
Andrew Fleming and Glyn Bowerman both play patients with uncontrollable urges--the first sexual, the second verbal. Like Morris and Annis, they both seem like puppets manipulated by other forces even as they try to stay within their roles. In fact, both really only become themselves when they give in to the urges they have been trying to keep in check while performing. Both represent disruptive forces that upset the order of the performance and of the institution. Scott Moore is very effective as Coulmier, glowing with self-satisfaction and the mistaken belief that the world is only getter better.
Musically, the production is top-notch. Conductor Pratik Gandhi draws precise performances of Richard Peaslee’s Weill-like music from the six-member onstage band and from the company. The contributions of the singing quartet of Felicity Adams-Hannigan, Michael-David Blostein, Philip Stonhouse and Kristen Zaza are always a pleasure, with Blostein the most successful at never dropping his patient’s persona.
Marat/Sade poses the insoluble chicken-egg question of what must come first in a revolution--freeing individual minds from conventional thinking or freeing society from economic and political forces that oppose change. Because of his large cast and its intellectual content, the play is more read in North America than staged. Even if there are flaws, the production has so many good points that every theatre-lover should take advantage of this rare opportunity to see this great work on stage.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Allan Michael Brunet as Sade and Liam Morris as Marat. ©2011 Scarlet O’Neill.
For Tickets, visit http://maratsade.x10.mx/wordpress.
2011-07-20
Marat/Sade