Features

Maybe if we all go over to the university and picket Zellerbach Playhouse we can persuade the university’s theater department to extend the run of their present production of Marat/Sade past this weekend. 

It would definitely be worth your while to beg, borrow, or bribe your way into this terrific production of a modern masterpiece. And the truth is that you probably won’t have an awful lot of other opportunities to see it. It’s just too large a project for theater groups to stage who have to pay for their talent. (Even with the entire cast doubling or tripling their roles this production requires thirty actors). But the university is blessed with a cooperative pool of novice theater professionals whom they can gently coerce into working for free. 

The net result is ticket prices that run from $8 to $14. And when you consider that the directors and other backbones of the productions are experts within their fields, it’s a theater buff’s dream come true. 

But enough about money. Marat/Sade would be memorable no matter what they charged. It’s a great presentation of a tremendous work. The actual title of the play gives a clue that you’re in for something remarkable—it’s just too long to be used very much: The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Clarenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade. 

From the play’s first appearance in West Berlin in 1964, Marat/Sade was recognized as one of the great plays of the 20th century. That seems formidable, and, underneath, the play is exactly that, of course. But the lightness of hand with which the complexity of the message is handled keeps it from overwhelming. There is no pain in this production. One could argue that the play’s brilliance lies in the use of comic techniques for a non-comic purpose.  

Behind everything is the use of the aftermath of the French Revolution as a metaphor for the complexity of power and political struggles. Set in 1815 at the height of Napoleon’s reign, the play speaks to the unpredictability of human action: The fact that the French Revolution did not lead to the relatively simple goal of individual freedom that the participants expected.  

But as with other truly great plays, this one is multi-layered and hooks you on many levels. It is absolutely possible to see this production in total ignorance of European history and still experience it as a knockout performance.  

The setting is suitably large, requiring a big chunk of the Zellerbach Playhouse’s space. From time to time some of the characters wander into the audience, some looking quite normal, others rather odd indeed. But they’re played a space or two outside of reality, meandering about, seemingly spontaneously taking various ridiculous actions.  

Entirely appropriately, the cast is identified as an “ensemble” with no distinction made between the actors. However, it is interesting to see how coolly Chris Cotone manages the role of de Sade. Much of his acting is done without words, sitting silently, detached, almost immobile, completely absorbed and completely untouched by the drama he controls.  

Without doing a single thing, he is most appropriately scary. It’s a chilling performance. But singling him out is not to suggest that he is alone in the quality of his performance. It differs only in that he is, after all, one of the few identifiable characters.  

The university’s theater department is to be congratulated on an awesome theater event.  

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