„The man who alters his way of thinking to suit others is a fool.“ (Marquis de Sade)
In two weeks, Friday 4th November, will drama ensemble have its first premiere of the season in historical building of State Theatre Košice. It will present the legendary play by even more legendary German author Peter Weiss „Marat/Sade“, directed by the prime Slovak director-professor Vladimír Strnisko, who has been forming a shape of modern Slovak drama theatre since the 60s of last century and is collaborating with Košice´s drama for the first
The revolutionary times bring verification of ideas in practice, followed by confusion. From a thought to an action, the evolutionary path is replaced by a revolutionary shortcut that necessarily leads to the tragedies of people and entire nations. Jean-Paul Marat, the icon of the French Revolution of 1789, experienced it for himself. His skin eczema forced him to spend hours in a bathtub, in which he was murdered after all. But what does the Marquis de Sade, writer and philosopher, who is the personification of sexual pathologies for today´s man and to whom we owe the concept of sadism, has to do with it? The German dramatist, Peter Weiss, has brought the excellent play to European drama, of which the original title, 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, suggests that the environment of the asylum, in which de Sade actually spent several years, and where he indeed rehearsed performances with his fellow patients, is an excellent framework for a statement about the great canvas of history of revolutions. And who is really crazy here? How scary the words of a radical priest Roux still sound today: „ We ask everyone to make an immediate effort to end the war, this cursed war, which is only an excuse for raising prices, that awakens appetites of conquest, we demand, that those who started the war, bear all the costs connected to it.“
Drama of th State Theatre Košice, for the first time in its history, collaborates with prime Slovak director-professor Vladimír Strnisko, who has been forming the shape of modern Slovak drama theatre since the 60s of last century. He was at the birth of now iconic Theatre on the Promenade, where together with an upcoming generation of actors formulated new ideological and aesthetic forms of our theatre. He also worked as a dramaturg at the Slovak Television and significantly contributed to the so-called „TV Mondays“. In the late 80s and early 90s, he was first a guest and later an internal director at the National Theatre in Prague.
The new production „Marat/Sade“ is a continuation of dramaturgical line of Dostoevsky´s Demons and Oedipus by Sophocles in the Drama of State Theatre Košice. The title characters of Marquis de Sade and Jean-Paul Marat are played by Matej Marušin and Tomáš Diro. In addition to them, almost all actors of Košice´s Drama perform in other roles and members of opera ochestra and ballet troupe will also make guest appearance. Peter Himič is a production dramaturg, the stage was designed by Lucia Šedivá (the recent winner of Martin Benka Award for 2021), costumes created by Silvia Korenči Zubajová, contributed music by Vladislav Šarišský, masks prepared by Juraj Steiner and Juraj Benčík collaborates on movement element.
