1.
This passionless spectator — an overdue review of Peter Weiss’ Marat/Sade
by LB
Jean-Paul Marat has emerged – in popular culture – as a figure of larger recognition than other prominent participants of the revolution such as Danton or Saint-Just. It could be argued that his image, melting in his bathtub, has had a larger reach than that of Robespierre.
As with many others, my (re)discovery of Marat’s likeness came about at the age of 15, through the Jacques-Louis David painting—specifically through the cover of the 2008 Have a Nice Life album Deathconsciousness. Although I’ve grown out of that album a very long time ago, the finesse of that painting has of course stuck with me. I am glad to report back on the fact that, at least in my judgement, it is a painting that is not wrongfully viral. Even as it is introduced to young people through Ottessa Moshfegh, it will always be a great work. And as someone raised in the Francophone school, I am happy to welcome any attention brought to the culture.
Since I am not required to be formal, I will include a favourite detail of the painting. David was a friend of Marat, and in his painting he edits a detail of the assassination. When Marat died, he was correcting a page of L’ami du Peuple (his newspaper). Instead of depicting that in his hands, David gave Marat a note, made to look like it was written by Corday: “il suffit que je sois bien malheureuse pour avoir droit à votre bienveillance” (“it is enough that I am quite unhappy in order to have right to your benevolence”).
Anyhow, unless you want your knowledge of Marat to be reduced to that painting, as well as an odd history class, this review is a quick attempt to encourage the watching and/or reading of the play Marat/Sade. I think we should all read more plays.
Theatre is still a literary genre that I feel inadequate speaking about, and even more, writing about. My repertoire includes school assigned plays, in the likes of Sophocles, Molière, Ibsen, and Shakespeare… As well as voluntary readings: Cocteau, Genet, Beckett, and Artaud. My poverty in the realm of plays is certainly due to their partial inaccessibility: if you do not live in a huge city, and do not have a disposable income to spend on plays semi-regularly, it will have been very long since you’ve ever visited the theatre. Thus, many of us have been forced to experience plays in less-than-perfect ways — reading the script as a book, or watching recordings.
I have had my eye on Peter Weiss’ Marat/Sade for a while (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 being the unabridged title), as it seemed to be in my taste. It seemed to me to be a very good play that one should know, incorporating elements of the theatre of the dialectic, and that of the cruelty. Besides that, Weiss spent the larger part of his life in Sweden, and even became a citizen—slightly increasing my interest.
The play is worth reading only to read Sontag’s great essay and review: Sade/Marat/Artaud. This review is of course incomparable – as it is less serious – and nearly not as good as hers, and I would not even try to write something in the same vein.
Thus, after thinking about it for around a year probably, I finally read the play by the end of august. Unfortunately I never came upon the play in person, as a book, so I read it on a pdf — very far divorced from the author’s intended experience. It is questionable if I could even qualify myself as having confronted the play, or if how I chose to come into contact with it is far too distant from myself to exist as the work itself. This is then barely a review of Marat/Sade, considering the belatedness of it, and of my failure to face the play as it was intended. I will just have to hope that by some lucky coincidence, I’ll get the opportunity to watch the play live.
The premise of the play is fully revealed in the title. We are made to watch Marquis de Sade, along with other inmates of the asylum of Charenton, perform their rendition of the persecution and assassination of Jean-Paul Marat, for those who don’t know. Sade’s play is well-written, but the inmates that perform it repeatedly cause it to go awry. For instance, the young lady who plays Charlotte Corday (the assassin) has narcolepsy, causing her to fall asleep as she is meant to be reciting her lines. Coulmier, the director of the asylum regularly chimes in in order to get the inmates to calm down, or to berate de Sade for criticising the church in the script.
Prior to any dialogue, the play contains specific and lengthy stage directions for assembly and cast. After all, we are watching the play as spectators of the visitors of the asylum, themselves witnesses to Sade’s play. There is a constant oscillation between what exists behind that invisible wall — or in this case, prison-grate — and what finds itself at the outer shell of the play. This effect is paired with that loud and visceral impact of the complete disintegration of purpose and message by the inmates. Without sounding too much like the average Laing-ian, there is surely something to be said about that discomfort which comes with asylum patients. Antonin Artaud’s opus The Theatre and Its Double aimed for the deinstitutionalisation of the theatre, for him it was too removed, and far too psychological. His theatre, that of cruelty, was to be direct, to sadistically impose itself upon the audience.
At the same time, that effect of separation, brought about by the doubled fourth walls, introduces the effect of alienation, which is typically Brechtian.
That oscillation, paying homage to two of the most significant 20th century playwrights defines this play – an homage to the avant-garde which manages to not be completely derivative and/or masturbatory. It can be quite hard to find something very good that has such a “fan” quality to it. This is not to dismiss Weiss as purely a fanatic, but his muses are not hidden. I would even stand to reason that it is a play for such zealots, those of de Sade, Artaud, Brecht, even Genet, and Beckett. It’s very fun, very great, and very smart — it’s also a great play for the introduction of such Brechtian and Artaudian concepts, so you should read/watch it.
Marquis de Sade: Compassion. Now, Marat, you are talking like an aristocrat. Compassion is the property of the privileged classes. When the pitier lowers himself to give to a beggar, he throbs with contempt. To protect his riches he pretends to be moved, and his gift to the beggar amounts to no more than a kick. No, Marat, no small emotions, please, your feelings were never petty. For you just as for me, only the most extreme actions matter.
Jean-Paul Marat: If I am extreme I am not extreme in the same way as you. Against Nature’s silence I use action. In the vast indifference I invent a meaning. I don’t watch unmoved, I intervene and say that this and this are wrong, and I work to alter them and improve them. The important thing is to pull yourself up by your own hair, to turn yourself inside out and see the whole world with fresh eyes.
2.
We have made zines!
by LB
If you thought that this Substack was the only way in which to access our articles, I’m sorry to say that you are sorely mistaken. This summer, in two instalments, we produced zine versions of some of our articles. In June, we created the ‘music issue’, featuring my articles about black midi and Kristin Hayter, as well as João’s article about Death Grips (as well as his titbit about horse-themed bands).
Now, as summer is ending, we are happy to tell that we found time to make another edition, this one focusing on literature. It includes João’s articles on Herman Hesse, and on T.S Eliot and László Krasznahorkai. I also have a little review on Aesthetics and Politics as well as my article on Ernst Bloch.
These zines are nothing too serious (just as our Substack), but they are fun to make, and to be able to have. This little segment was then just an announcement, as well as an opportunity for those who might be interested in one to send a DM or something, and we will see what we can do. That’s all then!