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

Peter Weiss

ISBN 10: 0871295075 / ISBN 13: 9780871295071

Published by The Dramatic Publishing Company, 1964

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Synopsis:

This extraordinary play, which swept Europe before coming to America, is based on two historical truths: the infamous Marquis de Sade was confined in the lunatic asylum of Charenton, where he staged plays; and the revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat was stabbed in a bathtub by Charlotte Corday at the height of the Terror during the French Revolution. But this play-within-a-play is not historical drama. Its thought is as modern as today's police states and The Bomb; its theatrical impact has everywhere been called a major innovation. It is total theatre: philosophically problematic, visually terrifying. It engages the eye, the ear, and the mind with every imaginable dramatic device, technique, and stage picture, even including song and dance. All the forces and elements possible to the stage are fused in one overwhelming experience. This is theatre such as has rarely been seen before. The play is basically concerned with the problem of revolution. Are the same things true for the masses and for their leaders And where, in modern times, lie the borderlines of sanity

About the Author: Peter Weiss was born in Berlin in 1916 and settled in Sweden before the war. Apart from his writing, he was a well-known painter, theatrical and operatic producer and he directed many films in Sweden. His dramatic reconstruction of the Frankfurt War Crimes trials, The Investigation, is also available from Marion Boyars Publishers. He died in 1982.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Persecution and Assassination of ...
Publisher: The Dramatic Publishing Company
Publication Date: 1964
Binding: Paperback
Condition: Very Good