Design Students Production of 18th Century Lunatic Asylum
IADT students developed character designs, costumes, spaces and properties through which to create a series of tableaux from an imagined full scale production.
“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 “
Written in 1963 by German playwright Peter Weiss this highly challenging theatre work remains one of the great Marxist examinations of the relationship of revolution, suffering and personal responsibility.
IADT students developed character designs, costumes, spaces and properties through which to create a series of tableaux from an imagined full scale production.
At the end of their second year of a four year programme these students are now able to research, design, previsualise and create the spaces and characters of complex historical narrative for film, TV or theatre.
This work is essential learning in advance of large scale opera designs they will design and realise next year along with diverse film and TV projects.
Set in a lunatic asylum in the 18th Century, Weiss describes the attempts by the inmates – under the direction of The Maquis De Sade – to dramatically recount the events of the French revolution. In doing so the work reveals the failings of all revolution and the inevitable return to a status quo which oppresses the great majority of the people.
Images by Peter Evers.