s therapy; a rather ironic, yet at the same time clever, idea seeing as how the play itself is conducted within the confines of an asylum, with the inmates themselves as the stars (Croyden 236).One of the most complex aspects of presenting Marat/Sade, which was produced to both great acclaim and great controversy, was its large and eclectic cast of characters and also its incorporation of a play within a play. On stage, these points were, looking at the opinions of a majority of both the audiences and the critics, presented successfully by Brook and the cast he worked with. From the prison guards who loomed in the background, clothed in butcher aprons and armed with clubs, to the half-naked Marat, slouched in a tub and covered in wet rags, forever scratching and writing, to the small group of singers, dressed and painted up as clowns, to the narcoleptic but murderous Charlotte Corday, Weiss and Brook offered a stage production that both engaged and amazed the audience, while at the same time forced them to question their role as the audience; no better exemplified than at the very end of the play, where the inmates, standing menacingly at the edge of the stage, actually begin to applaud the very people who applaud their performance, aggravating and confusing some, but forcing most to look at the conventions and routines of the theater which they themselves seem to be performing (Croyden 240).When Peter Brook decided to create a film version of Marat/Sade, there must have been a great deal of doubt as to whether or not such a feat was possible, for, as stated above, converting the play from the stage to the screen while still maintaining its richness and complexity of characters would surely take an enormous amount of creativity and ingenuity. Though the theater offered the challenge of presenting such a large production within the confines of a stage, one of the most essential aspects of the play, the relationship and interaction bet...
