February 1998 Review

February 1998 Selection

This months recommendation is a play by the french playwright Peter Weiss . The Play is absolute genius in that it creates a fantastical atmosphere that places two monumental french historical figures in combat through the use of the infamous play-within-a-play medium. Peter Weiss creates a scenario where the Marquis de Sade , while being incarcerated in the Asylum of Charenton, produces a play using the inmates of the Asylum.
The play is about the persecution and assassination of Jean-Paul Marat

V.S.

Marqius de Sade The Death Of Marat by David The play that de Sade produces is a musical that is being shown to an audience in the play , hence the play-within-a-play moniker. The play de Sade puts on is a musical and is unbelievably entertaining. de Sade is shown persecuting Marat and , in effect , creating the play as a means to a dual between his own ideals of passion and pleasure vs. the ideals of Logic, as represented by Marat.

After some research into the play I found that not only could the play be seen as a criticism of the French Revolution (and boy is it ever) but it can also be seen as a criticism of the World War II Holocaust , and as a play that attempts to engulf the history of it's own times (Weiss wrote the play in the 60's ) . Oddly enough some of the songs when being portrayed in the movie by the Royal Shakespeare Company , show some remarkable similarities to Beatle Songs from the psychedelic period.

"All you need it love" vs.. "Marat we're marching on "

Both these quotes are preceded by national anthems and suddenly pushed into a time signature change to start the main themes songs. The Beatles by the British National Anthem while the Marat/Sade quote by the French National Anthem. Odd eh ?

Anyways .. the joy of this play is how deep it can get ... if you are into the searching for deepness crap. Which I am ...because I like to interpret art in my own manner . It's not what THEY tell you it is .. but what YOU see , that matters.

This Play is extremely hard to explain and even harder to review.
So I will leave it to you to decide if you want to read it.
As far as I am concerned the title of the play should be enough to grab your attention and make you run to the nearest book store.

By the way .. I really really recommend the movie of the play done by the Royal Shakespeare Company , and directed by Peter Brooke .Good stuff ... great acting . Also the play actually won a Tony in 1966 while on Broadway .

But hey ! ...... that's just my opinion ....

This months Recommendation by Yoni Sapir Why Not ? Because!

This Page Hosted By

Get Your Own Free Website @ Geocities.com