Shortbus

Ladies and Gentlemen, get on the Shortbus.













Sexual frolitics: John Cameron Mitchell’s “Shortbus” chronicles the intersecting lives of a group of frisky New Yorkers. Photofest.

Described by the New York Times as "Part cabaret, part commune, the club functions as an adults-only playground, as well as a testing ground for Utopia; in other words, it’s America without the plastic, the fear and the hate," this bus happily takes us to the Generally Copulating Revolution and leaves us both exhausted and wanting more . . . what did the AD say to me the other day? That the revolution will always consume itself?

The band plays on as long as we remain 'permeable,' and we all get it ~ in the end.

Take a gander at the film website (link above the pic), and read the complete review in the New York Times here.

some YouTube clips:

Children of Men

a really excellent film that you should all see: it captures much of the spirit of our world of Marat/Sade: film site

you may also want to read an article here entitled: Cinema 2006: Narrative and Visuality

Biography of Weiss with brief production history

A Short Biography of Peter Weiss
With special focus on the writing, revision, and early productions of Marat/Sade
Prepared by Joanna Maselli

Familial Life

Peter Weiss was born in a small town outside of Berlin on November 8, 1916. He lived in Berlin until he was 18, when his family went into a self-imposed exile (which took them first to England, then to Czechoslovakia, and finally to Sweden by 1938) due to the threat posed to all Jewish Europeans when the Nazis gained power in Germany in 1933. Notions of exile, imprisonment, and alienation from society, likely derived from Weiss’s experience of life as an “exile,” were to eventually become prominent themes in Weiss’s work.

Early Artistic Exploration and Development

Weiss began his artistic career with some experimentation in painting when he was 16, and soon took up writing. In 1938 he moved to Switzerland for a short period of time, where he made important connections with other writers and artists, and he continued to write steadily. Weiss was forced to move back in with his parents in Sweden in 1939 in order to work and help support his family and their business (his father owned a textile factory) and went on to brief stints in other labour jobs, including farming and lumberjack work. In 1944, Weiss left home for a final time to live in Stockholm, where he was able to focus on his artistic pursuits. He held several exhibitions of his paintings, published his first book (a collection of “prose poetry”) and then landed a job as a newspaper correspondent in 1947, which gave him the oppourtunity to return to Berlin for the first time since his family’s exile. Many biographers and critics suggest that this visit to Berlin prompted Weiss to come to terms with the outside world, instead of fleeing into his own imagination through his art work. In 1948 Weiss wrote his first dramatic piece, a semi-autobiographical radio play about a young boy trapped in isolation his whole life; upon escape from his prison, the boy struggles to cope with the strange, new outside world. In 1952, Weiss began to experiment with avante-garde film while he continued to write several novels. By 1962, Weiss decided that he would be able to blend his interests in visual arts, film, and writing into playwrighting and theatre production. He became a member of a West German writers’ group, Gruppe 47, and began to study the theory and work of Swedish playwright August Strindberg. In the same year, Weiss also began to work on three different plays, including Marat/Sade.

Coming to Terms with the Outside World: The Writing, Revising, and Early Productions of Marat/Sade

Most of Weiss’s work up until Marat/Sade can be characterized as autobiographical, introspective, or generally detached from any concern with themes or subject matter beyond the immediate, interpersonal relationships of individuals. Marat/Sade is in some ways very different than Weiss’s earlier works, but does share the introspective qualities of these pieces (the Marquis de Sade’s debates with Marat are really debates with himself, since Marat is a fictional character created out of de Sade’s imagination), though these qualities are slightly masked by the “play-within-a-play” structure (as we are watching de Sade’s play, we often forget that Marat and the other characters are not real, but are part of de Sade’s imagination). The metatheatrical
elements of the play also suggest that the relationship between de Sade and Marat (between the playwright and his creation) may reflect the relationship between Weiss and de Sade.

Many of Weiss’s biographers and critics have noted that after Weiss’s visit to Berlin in 1948, he became more aware of the political, social, cultural, and historical environment of which he was a part. Prior to this, Weiss was, in many ways, in a state of self-exile from the outside world; he was not concerned with it, or at least showed evidence of the desire to shut it out, and with good reason. His family spent the wartime years and the years leading up to it fleeing from the Nazi’s far-reaching genocide, and Weiss seems to have spent these years attempting to distract himself from the horrors that were going on around him, and which at any point could come knocking at his door. After 1948, Weiss’s new and growing awareness of the outside world caused him to reflect on his relationship to that world. Weiss began to question what role he played in society, and what role he, as an artist, a writer, and an intellectual, should play. Here we find the seeds of de Sade’s debates with Marat. Marat argues that in times of social crisis, especially when a society is seeking radical change (as was the situation during both the French Revolution and WWII), certain individuals (particularly writers and intellectuals) should attempt to influence positive change in their society. De Sade, on the other hand, believes that the individual can only be responsible for his- or herself, and he questions whether or not it is even possible for a person to change his or her environment. Marat and de Sade’s arguments, though they are based on the specific situation of the French Revolution, almost echo the debates heard before, during, and after WWII. It is possible that Weiss wrote Marat/Sade as a delayed response to WWII, and to the complex debates which were still occurring in the 1960s about the actions and attitudes taken in that war, and about how individuals should react to social crises of the present and future. By addressing these debates and having them played out by his characters onstage, Weiss is not only addressing the inner debate he likely had within himself, but also the debates which were going on in his society at the time.

Weiss was also torn when it came to creating a final version of his play. He continued to revise Marat/Sade until his death, but there are three early versions of the play, all created between 1964-65, which are the most notable and most talked about — they are also the only three versions known to be performed and reproduced. The first version is the one which premiered in West Berlin in 1964. Weiss finished the first version of Marat/Sade while it was in still in rehearsal, with most of the changes being made to his stage directions in order to best-suit the direction of this first production (during the rehearsal of this production, Weiss continually revised the stage directions, technically creating many other un-produced versions of the play). The second version is the English version which Weiss created for (and to some degree, with) Peter Brook, who directed the London premier of the play and also made a film version of the play, in collaboration with Weiss. The main changes made during this revision process were again to the stage directions, which were changed in collaboration with Brook, and the music, which was written by a different composer. The third version of the script was created for the play’s premier in East Berlin (in the German Democratic Republic), and this revision included yet more changes to stage direction, as well as cuts to many of de Sade’s lines. Weiss was not directly involved in most of these revisions, which were made by the director in order to create a play which was more in-line with socialist values, beliefs, and politics, but he praised this production and adopted the changes which were made into a third version of Marat/Sade. The main difference between this third version and those produced for Western European audiences is that it posited Marat as the hero of the play and de Sade as the antagonist, whereas the Western European productions tended towards neutrality or towards favouring de Sade as the intellectual “victor” of the play. Weiss’s choice to favour the socialist reading of his play (despite the fact that this reading is not really supported by evidence from the original version) signals a change in his political viewpoints which results in a change in the direction of his career, specifically in terms of the subject matter which he studies and writes about.

Taking Sides

In 1964, just before Marat/Sade premiered in West Berlin, Weiss went to Frankfurt to see the war crimes trials, and visits Auschwitz. Weiss’s trip to Frankfurt and Auschwitz prompted a change in the subject-matter of his literature (a change which seems to have begun taking place when he wrote Marat/Sade -- or at least the reflection and inner-struggle that bore this change began with and is reflected by Marat/Sade) from personal or introspective themes to politically concerned themes and messages. Weiss’s career took a permanent turn in this direction with his play The Investigation, written about the Auschwitz trials. Weiss soon became particularly concerned with the oppression of the poor, especially in third-world countries experiencing political strife, and most of his later work is centered around this subject. Weiss continued to write plays, novels, and criticism, and even went back to revise a number of his earlier works (including Marat/Sade, though these revisions were never published or performed) until his death in 1982.


Bibliography

Berwald, Olaf. An Introduction to the Works of Peter Weiss. Rochester: Camden House, 2003.

Blomster, Wesley V., and Leon J. Gilbert. "Textual Revision in Peter Weiss's Marat." Symposium 25 (1971): 5-26.
Cohen, Robert. Understanding Peter Weiss. Columbia: University of South Carolina, 1993.

Ellis, Roger. Peter Weiss in Exile. Ann Arbor: UMI Research, 1987.

Fleissner, E. M. "Revolution as Theatre: Danton's Death and Marat." Massachusetts Review: A Quarterly of Literature, the Arts and Public Affairs 7 (1966): 543-56.

Kirshner, Sumner. "Marat Or Sade? Peter Weiss and His Play in London and Rostock." To Find Something New: Studies in Contemporary Literature. Ed. Henry Grosshans. Pullman: Washington State UP, 1969. 90-101.

Roberts, David. "Peter Weiss, Marat." Komos: A Quarterly of Drama and Arts of the Theatre 2 (1969): 1-8.

Sontag, Susan. "Marat/Sade." Partisan Review 32 (1965): 210-9.
Weiss, Samuel A. "Peter Weiss's Marat." Drama Survey 5 (1966): 123-30.

Death at the Wheel

The 120 Days of Sodom by Donatien Alphonse François de Sade.

"In 1784, Vincennes was closed and Sade was transferred to the Bastille in Paris. On July 2, 1789, he reportedly shouted out of his cell to the crowd outside, "They are killing the prisoners here!", causing somewhat of a riot. Two days later, he was transferred to the insane asylum at Charenton near Paris. (The storming of the Bastille, marking the start of the French Revolution, occurred on July 14.) He had been working on his magnum opus, Les 120 Journées de Sodome (The 120 Days of Sodom), despairing when the manuscript was lost during his transferral; but he continued to write."

>>> from the article about Sade on Wikipedia

>>> the text is available here

. . . and the film made by Pier Paolo Pasolini:


"Salo was based on the Marquis de Sade's gross sexual-political polemic The 120 Days of Sodom, in which a group of libertines gather in an isolated castle to tell perverse stories and torture a group of captives. Pasolini radically overhauled de Sade's original conception by placing the story in Italy during the closing days of World War II. The generic libertines of the original were made much more specific in Salo, intended to represent what Pasolini saw as the four destructive forces operating in modern Italy: a magistrate (representing the legal system), a banker (unbridled capitalism), a duke (royalty and the unbalanced class system), and a monsignore (the corrupt church). The victims in Salo are those Pasolini saw as victims in real life -- the poor, the peasants, the working class. In the opening scenes of the film, the four capture a large number of peasant youth and bring them to an isolated villa, where they enact all kinds of ritual tortures on them."

>>> from an article by Gary Morris in the Brights Lights Film Journal, on Popcorn Q found here

"When the movie premiered in West-Germany in February 1976 it was confiscated by the state attorney in order to ban it. The district-court of Stuttgart classified it as pornographic and violence-praising. A few days later though the movie was permitted for entire West-Germany."

>>> from the listing on the Internet Movie Database found here. Check out all of the trivia on this film.

below, a clip from the film with home-made subtitles in English

Glossary of Terms, Phrases, and References made in Weiss’s Marat/Sade

NOTE: This list is ordered by appearance in text, and terms, phrases, or references are grouped according to the scene in which they appear in the original uncut version of the script.

a PDF is available here for download

THE ASYLUM OF CHARENTON
An asylum located outside the borders of Paris. In the 18th century, asylums did not house strictly those who were labeled as mentally insane; the asylum was also a place to house political prisoners, criminals, or people will long term illnesses -- generally those whom society would rather forget about. One could also check oneself into an asylum voluntarily in order to escape from “normal” society.

1808
In 1808, the Napoleonic wars were raging in various parts of Europe. There was a Franco-Spanish alliance during the years between 1796-1808, but in 1808 the Spanish began to revolt against the French, who were currently ruling Spain. During this time, Sade was still imprisoned in Charenton, and there is evidence that he staged plays with the inmates during his stay there.

1.2
the Declaration of Human Rights
One of the many anachronisms scattered throughout Weiss’s play in order to link the events and historical/political climate of the French Revolution to a more contemporary time period (specifically WWII). The Declaration of Human Rights did not come into existence until 1948, and is concerned with protecting the rights and freedoms of all humans, regardless of sex, ethnicity, or religion. The Declaration of Human Rights became the basis for many international laws, and are meant to be applied universally to all human beings. No declaration like it had ever been created before. It is likely that Columnier “mistakenly” mentions the Declaration of Human Rights when he means to speak of The Declaration of the Rights of Man (created during the French Revolution and explained in 1.15 below).

1.4
Caen
A city located in a region of France called “Normandy” (famous site of “D-Day” battle of WWII). During the French Revolution, Caen was one of the major sites in the anti-Parisian “Federalist revolt”. On June 30, 1973, Caen was declared as headquarters for the "Central Assembly of Resistance to Oppression" after several Girondist leaders (Buzot, Louvet, and Petion) escaped to the city of Caen after escaping house arrest. Caen was a site of division and disagreement, with many different political groups struggling against one another for power and control of the city.

Girondist (a.k.a. "Girondin")
A member of the political “party” known as the “Girondists”; broadly described as moderate republicans. The Girondists (like all other political "parties" of the French Revolution) were not a clearly defined or cohesive group -- they were aligned with and opposed to many other parties throughout the duration of the Revolution, and these alignments and oppositions changed often, flowing into one another. The Girondists were among those parties generally grouped together and referred to as leaders in the "Federalist revolt.” Their main point of contention with the political parties emerging from Paris stem from the different values of the “rural” populations (versus those of the “urban” population of Paris).

1.5
the Revolution
Refers to a period in French history and the events that took place in that period: 1789-1815. This period includes the storming of the Bastille (1789), the period of “Terror” during which a republic was established and the royal family was executed (1792-1794), the fall of the Revolutionary leader Robespierre (1794), and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte (1799), the beginning of Napoleon's empire (1804) and his fall from power in (1815). Generally seen as a response to an a result of Enlightenment period (18th century) philosophy.

the old king's execution
The “old king” is Louis XVI, who was tried for treason and executed by guillotine in 1793 (after attempting to escape with his wife Marie Antoinette, who was also executed) as a conspirator against the Revolution.

aristocrat
A term referring specifically to a social class made up strictly of nobles (those who were born into or had bought a court title). The word literally means “rule by the best.”

the Bastille
A 14th century prison built into the city wall of Paris; used to house criminals and political prisoners in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Bastille fell on July 14, 1789, which is now a celebrated French holiday. See “the Revolution” (under 1.5) above.

1.6
Rousseau
An important figure in the European “Enlightenment” period (18th century), which was a period of intellectual exploration in many fields of human knowledge. Rousseau is grouped in with other intellectuals (including Voltaire) collectively referred to as “the philosophes” who were concerned with discovering what they believed to be universal laws which governed all creation, including human society. Rousseau’s theories led to a questioning of the major institutions of Western Europe, namely the church, the monarchy, and the aristocracy. Rousseau was a writer rather than an activist, but his writings were and are still credited as a major influence on Revolutionary theory and action, particularly The Declaration of the Rights of Man.

1.8
Tumbrel
This is a term given broadly to any kind of open cart, but it also has specific connotations which relate to the executions of the French Revolution, as it was used to carry condemned persons to the guillotine.

1.11
bourgeois
A term often used as a synonym for “middle-class”; this is a social group who are distinct from both the peasantry and the gentry, usually from a city or “burgh” (the origin of the word).

1.12
Damiens
Attempted to assassinate Louis XV in January 1757 during the period of civil strife between two opposing sects of French Catholicism: the Jesuits and the Jansenists (Damiens was part of latter group).

Louis the Fifteenth
Grandfather to doomed king Louis XVI, and often blamed for the decline of the monarchy’s popularity and authority due to the financial crises caused by various wars and a steady loss of French colonies.

"Citizen" a.k.a Citoyen(ne)
A term which is meant to connote both the privileges and responsibilities of a member of community; evokes the term “Comrade” as used in Communist discourse.

last September (1792)
Reference to The September Massacres, and les septembriseurs. After the fall of the monarchy in August 1792, the prisons became full with counter-revolutionary conspirators. Fearing a prisoner uprising, these people were executed in September of 1792, mainly over the course of 5 days. The terms “September Massacres” and les septembriseurs have come to connote merciless bloodlust in counter-revolutionary discourse.

1.13
centime
One hundredth of one franc (the currency used in France at this time).

1.15
the declaration of the rights of man
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen is an important document created during the French Revolution by the National Assembly (the provisional governing body at the time). It shares some common ground with the American Declaration of Independence, and posits the sovereign authority of the people and their will. This document is where the famous principles of the French Revolution -- “liberty, equality, and fraternity” -- were established as paramount to any government or legal system in France.

1.17
Marat's to be tribune and dictator
“Tribune” refers to an elected official with power to vote on or propose legislation. “Dictator” refers to someone with more absolute power, and in many ways this concept of rule was opposed to the ideals of the Revolution, and the idea of Marat as dictator is meant to cause unease.

a layabout from Corsica sorry I mean Sardinia
Corsica is the birthplace of Napoleon.

Barbaroux and Buzot
See explanations of “Caen” and “Girondist” (in 1.4) above.

“Already the English lie off Dunkirk and Toulon / The Prussians / [...] / The Spaniards have occupied Roussillon / Paris / [...] / Mayence is surrounded by the Prussians / Conde and Valenciennes have fallen to the English / [...] / To the Austrians / The Vendee is up in arms”
Many other European powers saw the French Revolution as an oppourtunity to invade an overtake France, or at least some regions of France, and hence many battles between the French and other European nations broke out during this time. Duperret's "confusion" has him make mix-ups which link various battles of the French Revolution with others from the Napoleonic Wars and from WWII: another anachronism in Weiss's play which links historical references with more contemporary situations (contemporary for Sade's 1808 audience and for Weiss's 1964 audience).

1.18
Napoleon
Emperor of France from 1804 to 1814, he reorganized the legal system and was responsible for the Napoleonic Wars, which were not popular with all French citizens, and made France the enemy of many other European nations at this time. He began to take power over France when elected in 1799. He was eventually abdicated in 1814, was exiled, returned briefly, and then was exiled a final time.

franc notes
Reference to paper money, which was introduced to France during the Revolution.

1.21
Bas
It is not clear if “Bas” is supposed to refer to the name of an actual person who worked with/for Marat, or if Marat's call for "Bas" is simply a call to an assistant of some sort, since the word "bas" in French means "base" or "low.”

1.26
charged thirty-six livres
A “livre” is an old French monetary unit, equal to the value of one pound in silver.

Candide
Published by Voltaire in 1759, this philosophical story follows the young, innocent heroin, Candide, as she ventures optimistically into a world of cruel misfortunes. A satire of the Church, the state, philosophy, and the professions, this tale ends happily when the now impoverished Candide and her equally unfortunate long-lost lover settle down and join a modest group of friends who become small communal estate owners and workers.

2.27
the National Assembly
Elective legislative body of during the French Revolution in the years 1789 to 1791. See “the declaration of the rights of man” ( in 1.15) and “franc notes” (in 1.18) above. A new assembly was elected in 1792 to serve as provisional governing body, but their function became nearly null in 1799 when Napoleon Bonaparte took power.


the “Jacobites” a.k.a Jacobins
The Jacobins have gained a reputation over time as ruthless radicals, the name was given to a Parisian political club which was established in 1789 who met at the church of St. Jacques to extoll their radical ideals of extreme democratic and egalitarian reform. Before the King’s escape to Varennes in 1791, the Jacobins were liberal constitutional monarchists, but the monarchists (and their values) fled the group in 1791. This group included the Revolutionary leader Robespierre. The Jacobins were strongly opposed by the Girondists (see 1.4).

Robespierre
See “Jacobites” above. Robespierre was also a major figure in the National Assembly and helped shape the Declaration of 1791 (see “the declaration of the rights of man” in 1.15 above). Robespierre was an advocate for the ideals of Rousseauvian democracy (see “Rousseau” in 1.6 above) and a self-declared supporter of Enlightenment ideals, he also promoted standards of equality which extended beyond religion and ethnicity (not just class). His popularity declined after reaching the peak of his popularity as a leader of the “republican revolution” of 1792 and as a member of the Committee of Public Safety in 1793 (and as such, many of the executions carried out during the “Terror” are credited to him); in 1794 he was arrested and executed by his enemies.

Danton
Elected to the provisional government as Minister of Justice in 1792, he encouraged the capture and arrest of anti-revolutionists, which led to the September Massacres. He was removed from a position on the Committee of Public Safety in July 1793 because he advocated peaceful negotiations with the countries currently attacking France; his motives for advocating such a solution were questioned, and he was met with suspicion by other Revolutionary leaders and activists. Danton was murdered by the guillotine in 1794 at the wish of the Committee of Public Safety, due to fears that he could stir up an oppositional party in response to his recent exile from the provisional government.

the emigres
This term, when used in the context of the French Revolution, refers specifically to members of the aristocracy who fled sites of Revolutionary uprising and violence, fearing imprisonment and/ or execution. Some emigres were eventually found and executed, and they were generally despised by all Revolutionary groups, who regarded them as cowards and traitors.

Necker Lafayette Talleyrand
Three major figures in and around the time of the French Revolution. Necker’s dismissal from his post of Director General of French Finances is credited as one of the main causes of the riot which resulted in the storming of the Bastille, and the Revolutionists forced Louis XVI to reinstate Necker during the early days of the Revolution. Lafayette was a French soldier who participated in the American Revolution, but became a defender of the aristocracy during the French Revolution (as part of the National Guard) and fled France for fear of prosecution when he was tried for treason after the monarchy was defeated. Talleyrand was instrumental in the coup which brought Napoleon to power, but he eventually resigned from his post as Foreign Minister in order to negotiate for Napoleon’s deposition, only to become the leader of the government afterwards in 1814 and restore the monarchy of France.

2.28
a slow Carmagnole
A dance which was popular in France in the 18th century, and became a celebratory dance of the French Revolution -- more notably, it was often danced in celebration of an execution, particularly during the Terror.

2.30
Petion, Louvet, Brissot, Vergniaud, Guadet, Gensonne
See “Caen” and “Girondist” (in 1.4 above)


Bibliography

Cobb, Richard, ed. Voices of the French Revolution. Topsfield: Salem House, 1988.

Furet, Francois, and Mona Ozouf. A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Trans. Arthur Goldhammer. Cambridge: Belknap of Harvard U, 1989.

Doyle, William. The Oxford History of the French Revolution. New York: Oxford U, 1989.

Carlyle, Thomas. The French Revolution: a history. London: Chapman and Hall, 1837.

Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Brock University. 17 September 2007 <http://0-www.oxfordreference.com.catalogue.library.brocku.ca/views/GLOBAL.html?authstatuscode=200>

Assemblee nationale. 16 September 2007 <http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/english/8am.asp

Dario D’Ambrosi: still crazy after nearly 25 years at La Mama

"For decades D’Ambrosi has explored visions of insanity through his theatrical works with his company Teatro Patologico. These productions have garnered him a lifetime achievement award from the Instituto del Drama Italiano, the equivalent of an Italian Tony award. His work has repeatedly mined the time he spent in mental institutions, and in his dedication to his newest work “A Crazy Sound,” playing at La Mama until this Saturday, Dec. 30, he says, “What shocked me most when I was in a mental hospital weren’t the antidepressants, the electric shock or the straightjackets, but… the animalistic energy.” . . ."

from an article by Wickham Boyle in the Downtown Express, Volume 19 Issue 33 Dec. 29, 2006 - Jan. 4, 2007 (New York). Click here to see the entire article and here for more information about this production Crazy Sound at La Mama.

Production Maquettes

the working images for our production can be found here - the link is also posted in the column to the right under " Image Links "

at the TIFF, Persepolis

"Persepolis is the much-anticipated animated adaptation of Marjane Satrapi’s acclaimed series of autobiographical graphic novels. Satrapi’s darkly humorous take on her experiences as a spirited young Muslim woman coming of age in Tehran – during the rule of the Shah, the Islamic Revolution and the gruelling Iran-Iraq War – makes for a bracingly original story."

more information here

New Team Member!

we welcome Karen McMichael to the team as Assistant Designer for Marat/Sade :-)

Spike Lee's TV Documentary "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts"

This is a four-hour documentary about Katrina (available to rent from Blockbuster in two seperate parts). What I found particularly interesting was the look it gave me into the lives and personalities of those who were trapped in the city during the flooding and the days afterwards - though on the news there was a tiny bit of discussion regarding the fact that these people were left to fend for themselves in this situation because they are basically social outcasts of various sorts (poor, elderly, disabled, etc), this documentary really captures these people in a more personal and human light, instead of through the distancing and awkward lens of PC journalism.

The official website at HBO

Links to few reviews, posted at BBC

(I drafted this post a whle ago and intended to add clips and reviews this week, but I have no internet access in my hotel room in Nashville unfortunately - but of course if you want to find more to see and read, there is always Google!)

ADDITION By DV: You can find material at Youtube starting here:

Weiss's various interpretations of his own work

From a 1966 review by Samuel Weiss (published in Drama Survey issue 5):

Peter Weiss (around the time of Brook's London production): "Personally ... I am for Marat because I think the things he says are the right things to do. And I understand Sade because Sade has the pesimistic view and because Sade ... can see already Stalin in the things Marat says ... . And so my solutions very often are not clear because the world I live in is not clear."

(Sam Weiss also states that "Marat/Sade dramatizes these doubts by splitting the author's [Weiss's] warring attitudes into two seperate characters" - which makes sense in that when Sade argues with his imaginary Marat, he is arguing with himself -this also gives insight into the possible identity of our man who believes he is Sade...?)
____________________________________

From David Roberts' "Peter Weiss, 'Marat/Sade' and the Revolution in the Theatre" (1969):

"a year after the premier of his play, Peter Weiss regretted an over-emphasis on the 'excessive theatrical form' of Marat/Sade, 'which was rather dangerous for some directors who were not sufficiently open to the debate … in so far as they took advantage of everything which could be overdramatically exploited. For instance the wild writhings of the patients, the uproar, this dramatic and threatening atmosphere, which is naturally very effective on the stage, but which hides the essence of the play.’"

Weiss (in interview with Sinn und Form, 1965 – also where above quote was taken from): “What particularly attracted me to the Rostock production [in which Marat is depicted as a socialist hero] was the clarity in the statements of Marat. It is clear enough that there were certain weaknesses in the production … But I do not think it matters in this case, for de Sade usually dominated in the western performances with the result that the emphasis has shifted to him. In Rostock the emphasis lay quite clearly with Marat.”
(What I find most interesting in Weiss’s shift of viewpoints is that he still wrote the play about de Sade, and this is undeniable – Marat is never a real historical figure in this play, he is always confined to the imagination of de Sade, and therefore can never truly take centre stage as a character because he is simply an offshoot of another character… but this can certainly be argued against, I guess…)

Weiss to A Alvarez in November 1964: “I stand only in the middle. I represent the third standpoint which I do not like myself … . I write in order to find out where I stand and so I must bring in all my doubts each time.”

“Weiss looks back at his earlier position in terms of his progression from de Sade to Marat in his interview in Sinn und Form: ‘… I needed a counterpart to Marat and this counterpart I found in Sade, the representative of a world not wholly bourgeois; for Sade was also a revolutionary in his way, but nevertheless a man who was so much the prisoner of his bourgeois viewpoint, that he corresponds to what we now call the representative of the third position. On the one hand he knows and realizes that society must be changed, on the other he has not himself the strength to take an active part in this transformation. He thus corresponds to my own earlier situation, to my own involvement in myself, to my inability to take the step into the outer world.’ The interpretation of Marat/Sade which Weiss now gives reveals him as the judge of the ‘third position’: ‘for me the figure of Sade is perhaps more differentiated than that of Marat because I myself have experienced and know very well the contradictions of Sade. I have constructed this Sade figure in such a way that Sade in fact undermines himself with his own arguments. Because this is the case Sade can be presented as a strong, dominating figure, in the final resort everything which Sade says adds up to the fact that the world he represents is condemned to disappear. As the end he is after all the figure who withdraws which the words of Marat remain and point to the future. It s a very complicated interplay.’”

Again from his conversation with Alvarez: “The ideal for an artist naturally would be to describe the situation in which we live so penetratingly that people when they read it or experience it on stage would say on the way home: ‘This must be changed. It can’t go on like this. We won’t put up with it any longer.’”

Weiss’s 10-point declaration about committed writing (entitled “Necessary Decision” – published in 1965) opens with this statement: “Every word I write and publish is political, that is to say, it aims at contact with large groups in the population in order to attain a certain effect.”

before Weiss became somewhat obsessed with Brecht... influences on his earlier dramatic ideas

From David Roberts' essay "Peter Weiss, 'Marat/Sade' and the Revolution in the Theatre" (published in 1969 in Komos: A Quarterly of Drama and Arts of the Theatre):
"The connexion between Weiss and Artaud is not simply Peter Brook's, in fact Weiss’s interest in Artaud is much older than his interest in Brecht, who is a surprisingly late influence on him, though now perhaps the most important as Weiss continues his studies of the classics, Marx, Engels, and Lenin. His latest play, the documentary on Vietnam,he describes as strictly Marxist […]. Weiss’s interest in Strindberg, whom he has translated, his acknowledgement of the importance of Artaud’s theatre manifesto of 1933*, his admiration and indebtedness to the surrealist cinema – especially Bunuel and Vigo – confirm that he was originally instinctively drawn to a fantasy world of violence and dream, as his early play, Die Versicherung (The Insurance), written in 1952 but only published in 1967, makes clear. The Insurance is a spectacle of sex and sadism, absurd, obscene, anarchic – its refrain is ‘catastrophes, revolutions’ – presented as a series of film-like sequences (it was originally intended as a film scenario). The first scene, for instance, very soon turns into an orgy, the second shows an operation during which all present undress, the sixth has one of the figures sitting in a bath. When he climbs out his body is seen to be covered with red hair. The scene ends with him howling to the dogs outside.” (emphasis mine)
*This claim (and the one made earlier about Artaud) is unfortunately not supported by any direct evidence, though we can acknowledge the Artaudian influence on The Insurance (note: this is of course Roberts’ description) and even to some extent Marat/Sade, as has been noted (though I’m still not totally sold on it – the play relies too much on language and I think that though there may be some hints of Artaudian influence there, they are distant and possible unintentional – also I am frustrated that many people seem simply to link Marat/Sade with Artuad because it features lunatics – but that’s just my two cents!)

some new old directions in costuming

how very Sad(e) . . . . can you smell these places?

I am not making a moral opinion here: I am bringing to your attention some contemporary aesthetic trends that maybe have a home in our show . . . . ? Let me know your thoughts.
*** check out the article here in The Huffington Post, or here in Feministing.com, here in the Eroszine, to the work of people like Hermann Nitsch - but be forewarned: these are littered with links that will take you to places such as the websites hosted by Necrobabes . . .who knew? And have you all read Friskby Dennis Cooper? (there's a film too . . )

But then this is Sade . . . and Joma can maybe tell us a bit about Weiss' statement on how the audience should respond to a performance of our play.

Visitations after Katrina

These are a few pictures that I was able to find from my travels to New Orleans in January (my computer recently crashed and I lost most pictures...but here are a few left over). There are many more back home and several detailed books compiled by the New Orleans newspaper chronologically outlining the events of the Hurricane. The lower 9th ward was a wasteland...out of some tens of thousands of homes, only 3 or so survived (the number was below 10). I did a "post-katrina" tour which opened my eyes to many outrages: victims being given only 10 thousand dollars to rebuild their homes, the amount of time it took for any help to actually arrive, etc.




This is the markings of the height of the water when the flooding occurred.



If you notice the "X" on the front of the house, this is significant of when the support came to help. As described on the front of other houses, there are 4 areas to write within the "X"/square. On the top marked the date they arrived, one side marked who came, another marked (possibly) the time, and the bottom had a number which indicated how many dead dogs, cats or people were inside.


But their marching bands are always rocking on...all in uniform it reminds me of the future patient-musicians


These are everywhere.

it's all in the attitude

some selected images from the fantastic portfolio of 'South African' photographer Roger Ballen
see http://www.rogerballen.com/

of water and refugees from the real life

Gini and I were discussing some of our visual memories from Hurricane Katrina. A picture search has come up with some remarkable images that tell the story of both the space and costume of those in detainment when the Republic falls apart, of Marat/Sade.

credits (top to bottom):

1-11, 20: Alan Chin/Gamma. New Orleans. 2005.

12: Houston, TX., 9/2/2005 -- Hurricane Katrina survivors sheltered in the Red Cross shelter at the Astrodome reflect on their losses. FEMA photo/Andrea Booher

13: New Orleans, La., 9/3/05 -- Evacuees from New Orleans are taken to the airport and those needing medical attention are treated by members of FEMA's DMAT teams. Photo by: Liz Roll FEMA#14772

14: Photo by: Liz Roll FEMA#14767

15: New Orleans, LA, 08/31/05 -- Residents on the side of the road near the Superdome (not shown) waiting to be rescued. The entire population of New Orleans was displaced as a result of Hurricane Katrina and the breaks in the levees which flooded most of the city. Photo by Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA

16: Houston, TX, September 2, 2005 -- A physician on her way to the Red Cross drops off food and diapers for displaced storm victims at the Houston Astrodome. Stockpiles of food, water and ice were brought into the Astrodome for the people who have arrived from New Orleans in a massive FEMA organized bus caravan. Photo by Ed Edahl/FEMA

17: unknown

18: Houston, TX., September 2, 2005 -- Hurricane survivors in the Astodome continue to search for missing loved ones. Approximately 18,000 hurricane Katrina survivors are housed in the Red Cross shelter at the Astrodome and Reliant center. The City of New Orleans is being evacuated following hurricane Katrina and rising flood waters. FEMA photo/Andrea Booher

19: Eric Gay/AP. Around midnight, August 28, 2005. New Orleans Superdome. At YahooNews.