Theatre Group Bombay

Play Name	The Persecution and Assasination of Jean- Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the Direction of The Marquis de Sae
Year	1969
Plot
Summary	The production was performed in the hall of the St. Xavier’s College auditorium and the audience was made to sit in the balconies above the hall and voyeuristically look in on the inmates’ lives. The audience was placed far away from the ‘mad’ people down below in order to give the illusion that they were at a safe distance from the danger and fights erupting down below. A lot of gory singing and rioting took place during the show, including a man’s head being chopped off on stage. Evenutally at the end of the play, the inmates murdered the Governer and the guards of the asylum for mistreating them. After this they climbed up into the balconies where the real audiences sat and shook them out of their chairs and ran out into the roads screaming about revolution. The audience members were not happy about this, and Theatre Group received a lot of threatening letters after the show.
Author	Peter Weiss
Director	Alyque Padamsee