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Maratsademusical

Marat/Sade.

This is about the musical. For the film, see Marat/Sade (1967 film).

Marat/Sade or 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 is a play with music.

Cast[]

Singing cast[]

  • Glenda Jackson - Charlotte Chorday
  • Michael Williams - Kokol
  • Jonathan Burn - Polpoch
  • Freddie Jones - Cucururu
  • John Steiner - Duperret
  • Elizabeth Spriggs - Rossignol

Non-singing cast[]

Plot[]

Set in the historical Charenton Asylum, Marat/Sade is almost entirely a "play within a play". The main story takes place on 13 July 1808, after the French Revolution; the play directed by the Marquis de Sade within the story takes place during the Revolution, in the middle of 1793, culminating in the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat (which took place on 13 July 1793), then quickly brings the audience up to date (1808). The actors are the inmates of the asylum; the nurses and supervisors occasionally step in to restore order. The bourgeois director of the hospital, Coulmier, supervises the performance, accompanied by his wife and daughter. He is a supporter of the post-revolutionary government led by Napoleon, in place at the time of the production, and believes the play he has organised to be an endorsement of his patriotic views. His patients, however, have other ideas, and they make a habit of speaking lines he had attempted to suppress, or deviating entirely into personal opinion. They, as people who came out of the revolution no better than they went in, are not entirely pleased with the course of events as they occurred.

The Marquis de Sade, the man after whom sadism is named, did indeed direct performances in Charenton with other inmates there, encouraged by Coulmier. De Sade is a main character in the play, conducting many philosophical dialogues with Marat and observing the proceedings with sardonic amusement. He remains detached and cares little for practical politics and the inmates' talk of right and justice; he simply stands by as an observer and an advocate of his own nihilistic and individualist beliefs.

Musical numbers[]

  • "Homage To Marat/Marat We're Poor" - Company
  • "Corday Waltz" - Charlotte
  • "Song And Mime Of Corday's Arrival In Paris/The Tumbrel Song" - Company
  • "Royal Anthem"'- Company
  • "The People's Reaction/Marat We're Poor" - Company
  • "Those Fat Monkeys" -
  • "Poor Old Marat/Marat We're Poor" -
  • "One Day It Will Come To Pass" - Charlotte and Duperret
  • "Marat's Nightmare/Marat We're Poor" -
  • "Poor Marat In Your Bathtub Seat" -
  • "Poor Old Marat" (Reprise) -
  • "Copulation Round" - Company
  • "Fifteen Glorious Years" - Company
  • "Finale" - Company
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