Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss
"Marat/Sade" is a two-act play written by German-Swedish author Peter Weiss, first performed in 1964. Set in the Charenton asylum in 1808, the play portrays an imaginative reenactment of the assassination of revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat by Charlotte Corday, occurring exactly fifteen years after the event. The narrative unfolds as a play-within-a-play, with mentally ill inmates performing the historical drama under the direction of the infamous libertine Marquis de Sade. The characters navigate complex themes of revolution, mortality, and social justice, reflecting differing ideologies about the role and efficacy of revolution in achieving societal change.
Marat, who suffers from a skin disease and is confined to a warm bath, embodies the idealist revolutionary, advocating for action against injustice. In contrast, Sade expresses skepticism about humanity's capacity for improvement and critiques the masses’ motivations for revolution. Corday, depicted as both a character and a historical figure, grapples with her perception of Marat, which evolves from admiration to a belief that he represents the corrupt status quo. The play culminates in a discussion about the relationship between personal desires and collective upheaval, highlighting the tensions between hope and disillusionment in revolutionary movements. "Marat/Sade" serves as both a historical reflection and a poignant commentary on the nature of power, ethics, and human aspiration.
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Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss
First produced:Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean-Paul Marats, dargestellt durch die Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton unter der Anleitung des Herrn de Sade, 1964 (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, 1965); first published, 1964
Type of work: Drama
Type of plot: Social morality
Time of plot: 1808
Locale: Near Paris
Principal characters
Marquis de Sade , a self-centered individualistJean-Paul Marat , a revolutionaryCharlotte Corday , Marat’s assassinDuperret , a Girondist deputyJacques Roux , a former priest and radical socialistThe Herald , the stage managerCoulmier , the director of the asylum
The Story:
This two-act play is divided into thirty-three scenes, with the first few setting the stage for the play and the play-within-the-play. At the Charenton clinic, Sade signs to the Herald for the play to begin. Coulmier explains to the audience, seated on the side and consisting of himself, his wife, and his daughter, that Sade has written this historical play portraying the assassination of Marat by Charlotte Corday on July 13, 1793. The performance has two purposes: entertainment for the visitors and therapy for the inmates. The performance is July 13, 1808, exactly fifteen years after the assassination. The Herald then introduces those inmates playing major roles, apologizing for their lack of skill. Sade plays himself. Marat is played by a paranoiac. The Marat, in the play, as in life, has a skin disease that necessitates his remaining constantly in a warm bath. Charlotte Corday is played by a woman suffering from sleeping sickness and melancholia.
The play-within-the-play begins with the “Homage to Marat” sung by four balladeers: Kokol, Polpoch, Cucurucu, and Rossignol, who represent the attitudes and grievances of the masses. For them, Marat is the only revolutionary, and they want to be assured that he will never give up their fight. When Roux elevates their cries for bread and freedom, Coulmier demands that Sade keep the performers to the approved script so as not to confuse and unsettle the patients.
Next, Charlotte Corday is introduced as both a character in the play and a historical personage. Corday believes Marat has become the evil genius of France and gains an audience with him through deceit, promising to betray the Girondists of her hometown, Caen. Marat is preparing his “fourteenth of July call/ to the people of France.” On the street, Corday has witnessed the crowd performing a dance of death as they march to the guillotine. A pantomime, narrated by Marat, portrays a history of past executions.
Sade and Marat discuss the meaning of life and death. Sade compares death to the indifference he observes in nature. For him, life and death are purely a matter of the survival of the fittest, without human compassion. Marat, on the other hand, maintains that it is absolutely essential to intervene whenever injustice occurs, especially when perpetrated in society by the Church and the state. When Coulmier objects to this characterization of society, the Herald sarcastically suggests that everything is different now and the comments serve only to provide a historical context within the play. Sade expresses his ambivalence about humanity’s ability to improve its lot through revolution, while Marat maintains that the time has come to put the writings of the “Declaration of the Rights of Man” into action. The masses, however, demand an immediate revolution.
Corday continues to believe in her mission, yet now she describes Marat, in her somnambulism, as the image of Napoleon. Duperret attempts to dissuade her, believing that Marat and his revolution will soon be conquered and freedom restored. Sade has lost faith in the idealism of the revolution, while Marat believes in it all the more, a viewpoint vigorously supported by Roux and the masses. They sing, “We want our rights and we don’t care how/ We want our Revolution now.”
Corday and Duperret believe the long-awaited freedom promised by the revolution will soon be realized. Marat, however, delivers a litany exposing those beliefs as lies and attempts to warn the masses against deception. Sade suggests that they are only interested in profiting from the revolution. Sade’s views are substantiated when Corday visits Marat a second time and gives him a letter in which she says, “I am unhappy/ and therefore have a right to his aid.”
The first act concludes with the scene in which Marat’s life is mocked and ridiculed by characters representing his youth, science, the army, the Church, the nouveaux riches, and even Voltaire and Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier. Roux again comes to his defense, asserting that only Marat realizes the need for a fundamental change in society.
The second act begins with Marat’s imaginary speech to the National Assembly attempting to rally the people to continue and conclude the revolution in accordance with his views. Sade, in his haughty and scornful manner, ridicules Marat’s idealism, proposing that he give up since all his writings and speeches have been futile.
Corday, who dreams she is saving a corrupt world, approaches Marat for the third time that day, to assassinate him. Sade makes a final attempt to dissuade Marat from his revolutionary ideas, suggesting the masses will fight only if they perceive a direct and personal reward. Their new cry is now, “And what’s the point of a revolution/ without general copulation.” The murder is interrupted momentarily by a musical history of the revolution, highlighting political events between Marat’s assassination in 1793 and the time of the play in 1808. In the epilogue, Coulmier and the masses sing the glories of their day, with Napoleon ruling the nation as emperor. The final lines, however, are spoken by Roux, admonishing everyone, “When will you learn to see/ When will you learn to take sides.”
Bibliography
Berwald, Olaf. “Staging Writers as Outcasts: Marat/Sade, Trotzki im Exil, Hölderlin, Der Prozess, and Der neue Prozess.” In An Introduction to the Works of Peter Weiss. Rochester, N.Y.: Camden House, 2003. A detailed examination of Weiss’s plays. Includes an introductory chapter discussing Weiss’s life and his work in exile.
Cohen, Robert. Understanding Peter Weiss. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1993. A well-balanced introduction to Weiss’s life and works, recommended as a beginner’s source.
Cooper, Pamela. “’World of Bodies’: Performing Flesh in Marat/Sade.” In Captive Audience: Prison and Captivity in Contemporary Theater, edited by Thomas Fahy and Kimball King. New York: Routledge, 2003. Focuses on the “converging of contrasts” in the play, arguing that “Marat/Sade relies upon a constant and irresolute rhythm of opposites simultaneously asserted and denied.”
Ellis, Roger. Peter Weiss in Exile: A Critical Study of His Works. Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1987. A comprehensive study of Weiss’s dramas, with special emphasis on Marat/Sade.
Hilton, Ian. Peter Weiss: A Search for Affinities. London: Oswald Wolff, 1970. A brief discussion of Weiss’s earlier life and works. Includes selected translations from essays, novels, and dramas.
Ramanathan, Geetha. “The Erotic Female Body: Weiss’s Marat/Sade.” In Sexual Politics and the Male Playwright: The Portrayal of Women in Ten Contemporary Plays. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1996. A feminist interpretation of Weiss’s play and its representation of women, women’s bodies, and eroticism.
Rokem, Freddie. “Peter Brook, Marat/Sade.” In Performing History: Theatrical Representations of the Past in Contemporary Theatre. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2000. Analyzes three post-World War II dramas that depict the French Revolution, including Marat/Sade. Describes how the plays unite the historical past with the theatrical present.
Sontag, Susan. “Marat/Sade/Artaud.” In Against Interpretation. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1966. Reprint. New York: Picador, 2007. An influential discussion of the reception and performances of Marat/Sade in the United States. Examines how Betrolt Brecht’s and Antonin Artaud’s dramatic theories can be used in producing this play.
White, John. “History and Cruelty in Peter Weiss’s Marat/Sade.” Modern Language Review 63 (1968): 437-448. Outlines Weiss’s use of historical materials in Marat/Sade, illustrating how facts and documents of the French Revolution are integrated to reveal later periods in history. Discusses how Antonin Artaud’s concept of the theater of cruelty was adapted in Peter Brook’s first London production of Weiss’s play.