'Marat/Sade' opens tonight, portraying insanity and revolution

Chris Hariasz, one of the two directors of Marat/Sade, a production opening tonight, described the play as "total theater." "It's drama, comedy and beautiful music," he said. "The pace of it just grabs you by the throat and keeps you to the end." The show, which is a collaboration of Intuitons and Penn Players, features a variety of aspects of performance. Much of the script is a play within a play which includes music, singing, and dancing. The play is about revolution, and the script incorporates many historical events and personalities. Within the play, which takes place in 1808 in an asylum bath house, the Marquis de Sade, who had in real life been detained in the asylum, has written and directed a play. This play is performed by the inmates for the general public. During much of the play, the Marquis de Sade talks to Marat, although historically, they never met. They debate over various aspects of revolution. Marat/Sade is unnerving because the performers hope to give the audience the feeling of being in an actual asylum. College senior Lori Horowitz plays the role of a patient with the sleeping disease melancholia. She said she thinks that the play delivers a unique experience to its audience. "It breaks down reality," she said. "It is a journey towards breaking down everything that's safe, familiar and real." Marat/Sade will be performed as one two-hour long act without an intermission. The original script allows the play to be done in either one or two acts. However, Director Seth Rozin says that the one-act format allows the show to keep its momentum. "If the audience goes away, they lose the illusion," Rozin said. The cast of Marat/Sade has been rehearsing since the beginning of the semester and boasts a total of about 25 actors, which includes extra cast members recently added to play the roles of nurses and guards and a small orchestra. The music for Marat/Sade is unusual. The play's music director, Wharton senior Howie Hsu, said that the music is not supposed to sound perfect, but as if it was written and performed by the asylum's inmates. Most of the costumes consist of the patients' hospital garb, in which they perform their play. The set is unusual, too: it features a vast multi-level wooden structure which serves as the bath house and a bath tub from which the inmate who plays the role of Marat performs. (Both the inmate and Marat incidentally suffer from a skin disease.) Cast members said Marat/Sade is extremely difficult to perform and rarely is. Most of the actors are faced with the task of playing two roles often at the same time, both that of an inmate, who may have serious mental problems, and his or her respective character within Sade's play. Horowitz said that it has been "a unique privilege" for her to participate in the production of Marat/Sade. She said she doubts that she will ever have the opportunity to do this play again. College senior Jeff Leland, who plays the role of Sade, confronted different challenges from many of the other actors. Although he had only one to role to play, it was that of an imfamous historical figure. He had to reconcile the script of the play with the historical facts about Sade. Leland said that he was forced to discard some of the historical facts about Sade partly because of their differences in physcial attributes. He said he does not view Sade as evil or bad. He also pointed out Sade did not view himself as insane. "He has a different definition of morality," Leland said. The show runs through Sunday with performances tonight through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $7 or $5 for students presenting a University ID, and are available on Locust Walk, at the Annenberg Center Box Office and at the door.

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