Potsdam, NY, Mar 28, 2012 — SUNY Potsdam's Department of Theatre and Dance will present the play Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss this week. The show opens in the College Theater in Satterlee Hall tonight at 7:30 pm. Marat/Sade is set in a French insane asylum in the early 19th century. The characters are the inmates in that asylum who also become the actors in the Marquis de Sade's play.

The play-within-a play takes place during the turmoil of the French Revolution, as seen through the eyes of de Sade. It dramatizes a debate between de Sade, the staunch defender of the old regime, and Jean-Paul Marat, the radical advocate of revolutionary change. Written in 1963, and long associated with the upheavals of that decade, director Don Mandigo told Todd Moe that Marat/Sade is ever more resonant in 2012.

Note: this show is not recommended for young children.