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THE DRAMA OF INCOMPLETENESS DECLARED TO BE COMPLETE
soldier of the revolution”.°** That is why Sinkovits’s de Sade had to collapse in
the end, defeated in the debate, fallen and helpless while watching the frenzy
of the inmates, rebelling regardless of his will.5 Of those inmates, who no
longer appeared as patients, but as inexorable initiators of social upheaval,°**
turning the lesson of the clash between Marat and de Sade into action.”
The management of the crowd, remaining on stage all the time, was
highlighted as a spectacular effort of the mise-en-scéne, although it did not
overstep the 100-year-old achievements of the Meininger: “the chorus did not
comprise indistinguishable faces” and its members were “all individuals”.°*
Marton divided the company into three parts after the first rehearsals, and in
addition to the singers (Kokol, Polpoch, Cucurucu and Rosignol), rehearsing
in the music room, as well as the main characters, rehearsing on a smaller
stage, he worked a lot with the crowd on the main stage.*”’ The atmosphere, the
feeling of apathy was particularly important for him, in order to show “how
strong the power of the revolution is and how it can mobilize an indifferent
544 F.M.: Jean Paul Marat iildéztetése és meggyilkolása de Sade úr bemutatásában, Közalkal¬
mazott, Vol. 19, No. 3, 12'" March, 1966, 5.
5% Judit Sz. Szänté analyzed the staging from a dramaturgical point of view, stating that the text
performed by the characters and written by de Sade is determined by the inmates’ type of
insanity. Corday is asomnambulist, Duperret is an erotomaniac, etc. Alone Marat’s situation
is not so obvious because there are one or two signs of his being played by a paranoid patient
only at the beginning of the play. Marat becomes Marat, when he takes part in the spectacle,
but in other moments he sits motionless and does not have such small actions as the others,
who stress their madness all the time. At the same time, de Sade’s superiority, the writer’s
supremacy over his creature, the director’s sovereignty against his actor ceases to exist.
“Marat, brought to life by de Sade, breaks out of the framework imposed on him by de Sade,
and the content of his thinking, the revolutionary idea he embodies, gives birth to him a
second time: to a being independent from de Sade. This second being brings about an ending
that is [...] in accordance with the new and different convention of Marat’s independence:
the inmates pay obedience to Marat instead of de Sade, the writer, but not to a sick actor
moved by de Sade, but to Marat who has come to a new life, and they also come to a new life
as a rebellious people. The madmen’s rebellion and its repression already take place not in
de Sade’s spectacle, but on the battlefield of objective social struggles, and de Sade can only
watch them helplessly.” Sz. Szanté: Marat és De Sade, 6.
546 Cf, “After the assassination of Marat, the inmates become the lifeblood of the revolution,
who are ready to go fighting for progressive ideas. [...] Then we do not think they are crazy
anymore and we find those crazy and evil who brutally crush their enthusiastic movement.
If you take care of the news of the world, you will find many events that are very similar to
those seen on stage; Dominica, Ghana, Indonesia, etc.” G. Szab6: Biral a postás néző, 3.
547 Cf. “The director definitely stresses revolution and gives it particular emphasis with the
chorus. [...] This work, directed by Endre Marton, in which the clash of the ideas of Marat
and de Sade always cast new sparks in the crowd, is like a march." Győző Bordás: Forradalom
és bravúr. A budapesti Nemzeti Színház vendegjätekäröl, Magyar Szö, Vol. 32, No. 335, 7'*
December, 1975, 13. (The review was written about a guest performance of The Death of
Marat revived in 1972. The National Theatre took the production to Belgrade nearly ten
years after its opening.)
Sas: Tisztázni az ember rendeltetését, 6.
549 Cf. Éva Lelkes: A sokdimenziós színpad, Film Színház Muzsika, Vol. 10, No. 8, 25 February,
1966, 12.
548
e 1]I4