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News Release

Last modified: Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Indiana University presents the theatrical tour de force 'Marat/Sade' by Peter Weiss

WHAT: Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss; directed by Dale McFadden.
WHEN: Opens Friday, Feb. 5, 7:30 p.m. Additional shows Feb. 6 and Feb. 9-13 at 7:30 p.m. Special matinee Feb. 13, 2 p.m.
WHERE: All performances take place at the Wells-Metz Theatre. No photography or recording of any kind is permitted during performances.
TICKETS: $20 adults, $15 students/seniors; Student Rush Tickets: $12 cash with a valid IUB student ID on the day of each performance. Ask the box office about buying tickets in advance at student rush price with flex vouchers.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 19, 2010

Bloomington, Ind. -- Indiana University's Department of Theatre and Drama kicks off the spring semester with the Tony Award-winning play Marat/Sade, written by Peter Weiss, under the direction of IU Professor of Acting and Directing Dale McFadden.

In this play-within-a-play, the patients of Charenton Asylum present a play about the murder of Jean-Paul Marat that turns into a political parable when they unleash their rage and incite rebellion.

McFadden describes Marat/Sade as a fable about the value of personal and social revolution versus the value of personal disengagement. Never happy with "faux-historical productions of the play," McFadden said he has set the IU production in a contemporary asylum where -- like a parade -- the rebellious patients create their own pageant of sorts.

McFadden said a contemporary audience will embrace Weiss' masterpiece. "I'm confident that the question of how one can be optimistic, pessimistic, or both about the future of mankind is still a relevant issue," he said. "The serious themes combined with an eclectic and irreverent production style should be an engaging and refreshing time in the theater."

Among the cast of 25 undergraduate and graduate students are first-year M.F.A. acting student Alex McCausland (The Clean House) as the Marquis de Sade and junior B.F.A. musical theater student Matthew Martin (Blood Brothers, Oklahoma! and Hamlet) as Jean-Paul Marat. The design team consists of music director Eric Anderson, Jr.; scenic designer Nicholas Graves; costume designer Jennifer Sheshko (Stop Kiss, As You Like It), and lighting designer Ryan Koharchik (visiting artist from Indianapolis-Shadow Ape Theatre).

Wrotethe Washington Post of Marat/Sade: "The full, breath-defying title is '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.' [The play] was a sensation in the mid-1960s, when its proletarian sensibility and explosively theatrical style seemed perfectly calibrated for a decade of tumult."

For more information about the Department of Theatre and Drama and Marat/Sade, including biographies of the cast and creative team, visit www.theatre.indiana.edu.

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