Marat/Sade drama running in Bartlett Theatre

The Marquis De Sade ( Dave Ebert), left, directs Marat ( Dan Evans) and Charlotte Corday (Amy Van Deusen), right, in a scene from “Marat/Sade,” which opens Oct. 24 at SUNY Fredonia.

An acclaimed work set in the era of the French Revolution will open the 2008-09 Walter Gloor Mainstage Series at the State University of New York at Fredonia.

The Department of Theatre and Dance will present “Marat/Sade” from Oct. 24 through Nov. 1 in Bartlett Theatre at Rockefeller Arts Center. Critically acclaimed for its unique style and structure, this “play within a play” will feature a cast of 27, as well as seven musicians from the SUNY Fredonia School of Music.

“It’s going to be a pretty intense evening,” said Dr. James Ivey, who is directing the production. “I haven’t encountered something of this serious a nature for many, many years. As a director, it’s really good for me because I’m having to see where I am as a director and trying to find a little deeper level of experience that I have to bring to the performers. We’re really having to explore some of the dark corners of our minds.”

The work, whose full title is “The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat As Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Chareton under the Direction of The Marquis de Sade,” was written in 1963 by Peter Weiss.

Originally written in German, the play takes place in the Charenton Asylum on July 13, 1808, after the French Revolution. The play within the story is directed by the Marquis de Sade and takes place during the French Revolution in 1793. The actors in the play are inmates at the asylum and the director of the hospital, Coulmier, oversees the production along with his wife and daughter. Coulmier is a supporter of Napoleon and believes his patients are putting on the play to support his patriotic views. The patients, however, have other ideas and speak their own opinion or lines that Coulmier had attempted to silence.

Ivey said the actors were cast last spring so they would have time to mentally prepare for the roles they were to take on. Because of the “play within a play” format of “Marat/Sade,” there are certain challenges that the actors face.

“We have these mental patients who are already in a diminished capacity, and then they’re playing characters at times,” Ivey said. “We have an actor playing a mental patient, playing a character. It’s challenging from that standpoint to make it come alive and make sense.”

The cast of the play has been working closely with Dr. Dani McKinney, a professor in the Department of Psychology, in addition to doing research and reviewing information that Ivey has given them. McKinney has attended rehearsals to observe the actors and give them additional insight to the roles for which they are preparing.

Interestingly enough, during the era in which “Marat/Sade” is set, France made great strides in the development of psychological counseling. At this time, efforts were made to talk to mental patients and counsel them, rather than shunning them from society.

Ivey pointed out that the Marquis de Sade was not insane but suffered from “incessant sexual desire.” Yet, he was still locked up in an asylum because his wife made a plea to put him there. The Marquis was a man of the theatre, a novelist and a playwright who produced plays on his estate. Once he was confined at the asylum, he wrote and performed plays with varying degrees of success.

Ivey said this production of “Marat/Sade” is for mature audiences because of its allusions to “sensational action” and some violence.

“Marat/Sade” is sponsored by M&T Bank as part of the Lake Shore Savings Season.

Show dates and times are Oct. 24 and 25 at 8 p.m., Oct. 26 at 2 p.m. and Oct. 30 through Nov. 1 at 8 p.m. For tickets, visit the SUNY Fredonia Ticket Office in the Williams Center, call 716-673-3501 (1-866-441-4928) or go to www.fredonia.edu/tickets.