EgoPo's "Marat/Sade' (2nd review)

I've always dreamed of seeing Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade performed live, on stage. The 1963 play within the play concerns the turbulence following the French Revolution of 1789 and its bloody consequences, with the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat, 1793, as its central theme. The play itself takes place in 1808 at the mental hospital, Charenton, where the Marquis de Sade had been confined. It's an historic fact that while a patient there, de Sade organized and presented plays performed by the inmates and occasionally members of the staff. This was considered very modern therapy at the time.

Unfortunately, EgoPo's current production left much to be desired— at least in its first act. I'll never know how Act II turned out because I fled at the first intermission.

I attended the opening night performance at The Sanctuary at The Rotunda, whose interior is a miniature version of the Pantheon in Rome. However, the oculus was covered by glass, so that not one breath of air could enter this non-air conditioned space. Thank God for the Playbill— everyone in the audience used it as a fan. Perhaps cooler temperatures will prevail at other performances, so members of the audience— seated in a semi-circle at the far distant end— can concentrate on understanding the inaudible dialogue.

Despite the shouting of the cast members, their words took flight up to the Rotunda's high ceiling and floated back, muffling the succeeding lines. It's an impossible setting for a play that contains so many pertinent comments about the nature of revolutions and their ultimate effects. My main impression was the sound of a wooden pole battering the floor. Instead of responding to the dialogue, I found myself wondering: Who will handle the repairs?

Marat/Sade is a play with music, as opposed to a musical whose melodies are integral to the story. Matthew Wright's score became a welcome supplement to the production. Since most of the cast were supposed to be patients in the hospital, it seemed perfectly usual for Simonne (Sarah Schol) to be compulsively scrubbing everything around her or for other patients to wander around the stage, staring at the audience as if we could answer their questions about life as it was and is. Perhaps the cast as well as the audience were asking themselves, "What am I doing here?"

Since the EgoPo troupe lost their New Orleans-based theater to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, they've relocated to Philadelphia. EgoPo's 2010-11 Theater of Cruelty Festival will be its fourth Philadelphia season. Please welcome them"“ but select a cooler evening and try to sit front and center. You might even hear the dialogue.♦


To read responses, click here.
To read another review by Norman Roessler, click here.
To read another review by Jim Rutter, click here.
To read another review by Steve Cohen, click here.