Marat / Sade Critical Essay #2

Marat / Sade Critical Essay #2

In the following review which was originally published on December 28, 1965, Taubman praises director Peter Brooks's production of Weiss's Marat/ Sade for presenting "afresh, probing sensibility in original stage terms. "

Imagination has not vanished from the stage. Nor intelligence. For proof see Peter Weiss's play, which opened last night at the Martin Beck Theater.

The exceptional length of the play's title is not caprice. The play reverberates with overtones even as its name is crowded with words and syllables' The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade.

Mr. Weiss has written a play within a play, and in both there are unexpected resonances of comment and meaning. He has used the techniques of Brechts, invoking verse, music and speeches to the audience to produce an effect of standing...
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