Marat/Sade Plays at OSU

I just learned that the OSU Department of Theatre is putting on a production of Peter Weiss' 1963 play,  Marat/Sade (The Persecution and Assassination of Jean Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates at the Asylum of Charenton under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade  ).  This is a knock-out drama in which the French Revolution is re-enacted by the inmates of an insane asylum, under the direction of Marquis De Sade. 

 The play essentially involves a debate over social change that takes place between revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat (as the idealist) and the Marquis De Sade (as the realist).  The action culminates in the assassination of Marat by Charlotte Corday and the failure of the original ideals of the French Revolution.  Epic in scope and involving lots of action and music (really), it's definitely worth seeing and is important as background to the material we have been reading in this course.  If you see the play, you may use it as the subject of your second blog for the course.

Here is more information about the OSU performance. which is playing at the Drake Union and continues through Saturday.

Here is an extended clip from a 1967 film version of the Royal Shakespeare Company production: