UNITED KINGDOM: MULTI LINGUAL , MULTI TALENTED HARVARD STUDENTS PERFORM PLAY MARAT /SADE AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

Record ID: 390069

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: MULTI LINGUAL , MULTI TALENTED HARVARD STUDENTS PERFORM PLAY MARAT /SADE AT THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL
  • Date: 4th September 2000
  • Summary: VARIOUS, STUDENTS PERFORMING SCENE FROM MARAT/SADE
  • Embargoed: 19th September 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA7QPII665PCXTNB420BQM2QCPQ
  • Story Text: The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which has just ended, is traditionally a chance for young talent to come to the fore.
    Critics have praised the Double Edge Theatre Company, made up of students from Harvard University, just outside Boston in the United States, and Eton College, in the English Thames Valley. One of their productions is a sadomasochistic play inspired by the life of the Marquis de Sade.
    They made be college kids but their acting has a mature, assured, air of authority - and they are not afraid of controversy.
    Marat/Sade deals with mental illness and unconventional sex. It draws on the lives of the Marquis de Sade, who gave his name to sexual violence, and John Paul Marat, a radical thinker persecuted by the French state.
    Director Cary McClelland says: "The play was written by Peter Weiss, a German playwright. It was written largely in response to the Holocaust and the Communism that fed off that.
    It tries to respond to what he considers to be the debasing of humanity - the uniqueness of humanity - as committed by the mass murderers of the Holocaust, and the Communist state itself. The French Revolution is used as a metaphor for that, and it's set in an insane asylum so that the Marquis de Sade can inflict a kind of revenge upon those atrocities and break free. And the lunatics break free. And it's that kind of freedom... a unique mind, an individual mind... is what's attempted to be reasserted."
    The cast of ten paid their own way to produce the play at the Fringe.
    The settings may not be luxurious, but they're having a good time working in the mysterious vaults underneath the city where the play is staged.. Student actress Lisa Faiman says: "Everyone here is from Harvard University. It's a lot of fun. But also a little bit difficult. It's long hours, a lot of work. We're putting a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into this, but then - we're spending the summer doing what we want to do."
    She hopes to be able to use the Edinburgh experience to enable her to become a professional actress when she completes her studies in art and architecture.
    The Double Edge approach gives a dual role to actor Simon Yadoo, who plays Marat - and the head of the asylum.
    It's a theatrical device which invites the viewer to question the traditional definition of morality - and reality: "The Marquis de Sade has leant his name to sadism but it's hard to do a play about a figure like him without touching on that side of his character.
    "It's a great play. It's interesting, the most interesting thing I have done in my short theatrical career.
    The length of the run and the nature of the play make for an arduous three weeks."
    His colleague, David Modiglliani, adds "The sadomasochism that's used in the play is done to tap into the audience's emotions. It perhaps crosses some limits but with the aim of provoking and unsettling them, with the idea of driving home the message of the play."
    Critics have heaped praise on the play, calling it an innovative production which sheds new light on an established, yet scarcely performed classic. It's the company's tenth anniversary year at Edinburgh.
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