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

The showdown between two revolutionary thinkers: Jean-Paul Marat, a leading figure of the French Revolution, and the Marquis de Sade, who completely lacks faith in humanity and its capacity to progress, takes place against the backdrop of a theatre production by the inmates of the Charenton asylum. Under the direction of the Marquis de Sade himself, who has been imprisoned for blasphemy and pornography, the inmates play out Jean-Paul Marat's famous assassination in the bath by Charlotte Corday. Revolution and rage, asylum and stage – Peter Weiss's play is simultaneously a historic philosophical reflection and a crazed theatrical spectacle. After its Berlin premiere in 1964, both play and author became internationally renowned, but were subsequently seldom performed. In this re-worked version of »Marat/Sade«, Peter Kleinert, who staged »The Lower Depths« at the Schaubühne in 2011, together with his young cast of drama students from the School of Performing Arts »Ernst Busch« Berlin and members of the Schaubühne ensemble, questions the possibility of revolution today.