The play “Marats/Sads” at the National Theater addresses a discussion about the meaning and consequences of the revolution / LR1 / / Latvijas Radio

On April 25, the premiere of the production “Marats/Sads” by Klāvas Meļļ and Rūdolfs Gediņš is expected at the National Theater, which they have given the genre designation – opera for the weak. It is based on the motifs of the play by the German playwright Peter Weiss, in which he allows two historical characters – Marat and Sada – to meet and have a passionate discussion about the meaning and consequences of the revolution.

The play is very unusual in form and expression, and exactly the same will be the performance, which the creators themselves describe as an untamed musical adventure with an accordion orchestra on stage. German dramatist Pēters Weiss wrote the play in the 60s of the last century, it already belongs to the classics, translated into many languages, staged in many places, but is very little known in Latvia.

In the play, spoken texts and poetry intertwine with songs, music and a special movement score, the original music was composed by Edgars Mäkens especially for the National Theater performance.

The action of the play takes place in the psychiatric clinic of Charenton, where the notorious and scandalous writer Marquis de Sade actually spent the last years of his life. Seeing it as art therapy, the head of the clinic allowed him to stage plays he had written there, in which the other patients of the clinic took part.

In the show, we can take a look at one of de Sade’s productions – the musical performance about the murder of the leader of the French revolution, Jean-Paul Marat, his death in the bath, which David also reflected in his famous painting “The Death of Marat”. Marat was killed by Charlotte Corday, who is also one of the heroines of the show.

The very form and expression of the play presupposes that the production must also be non-traditional or unaccustomed, as described by the directors Klāvs Mellis and Rūdolfs Gediņš.