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<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">Dear friends of Waterloo Arts, <o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB"><o:p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"> </font></o:p></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">The Waterloo Centre for German Studies would like to invite you to a diversified afternoon about the French Revolution, the complexity of theatre and questions about normality, democracy and self-discovery:<o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span> </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">On <strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">7 February 4.30pm</strong>, the Canadian artist <strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Althea Thauberger</strong> will present her new project <strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Marat Sade Bohnice </strong>at the University of Waterloo at Arts Lecture Hall 211.<strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><o:p></o:p></strong></font></font></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman"><em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">Marat Sade Bohnice</span></em><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB"> is an experimental and documentary record of the performance of German author Peter Weiss’ play <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Marat/Sade</em> at Bohnice, a psychiatric hospital in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Prague</st1:place></st1:city>. <o:p></o:p></span></font></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">After an introduction to her interesting project, Althea Thauberger will show her film and discuss it with the audience. Snacks and drinks to follow with the opportunity to continue the conversation. <o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">The WCGS has supported this artistic project. Marat Sade Bohnice is currently shown at the </font><a href="http://www.thepowerplant.org/"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery</font></a><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman"> Toronto. <o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB"><o:p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"> </font></o:p></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">In the following you can find some information about Althea Thauberger’s film and project<span style="COLOR: gray"><font size="+0">: <o:p></o:p></font></span></font></font></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB"><o:p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"> </font></o:p></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">The original play <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Marat/Sade, </em>that German author Peter Weiss published in 1963, is a play-within-a-play with the fiction that Marquis de Sade directed a play about the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat and staged it in the Charenton asylum in France in 1808, nineteen years after the beginning of the French Revolution. </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN">The actors are the inmates of the asylum who are mental patients or political prisoners. </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">The play reveals an ongoing debate about whether the imperatives of revolution originate within the individual or within society as a whole. <o:p></o:p></span></font></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN"><o:p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"> </font></o:p></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">As in the fictional play the historical Jean-Paul Marat, a French politician and a leading brain of the French revolution, was murdered </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN">by Charlotte Corday, an opponents’ sympathizer in 1793. </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">Marquis </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN">de Sade, after whom sadism is named, was a French writer, philosopher and politician, known for his libertine sexuality. Most of his works combine philosophical thoughts with violent sexuality. D</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">e Sade was held prisoner in the Charenton lunatic asylum from 1801 until his death in 1814 and during this time he did indeed direct performances in the asylum with other inmates. </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN">In his play, Peter Weiss brought together two unconventionally thinking figures that could not be more different: Jean-Paul Marat, convinced revolutionary and adamant fighter for justice and equality among people and Marquis de Sade, cynic and disaffected follower of the French revolution, who satisfies his extremely hedonistic view of life with </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold" lang="EN-GB">barbarity</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB"> and brute sexuality.</span></font></font><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB"> </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">In the course of the play, Marquis de Sade conducts many philosophical dialogues with Jean-Paul Marat, which he follows with sardonic amusement. <o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN"><o:p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"> </font></o:p></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">Since the original play is set in the Charenton asylum’s bath house, Canadian artist Althea Thauberger staged the play Marat/Sade in the abandoned laundry facilities of Bohnice, the largest psychiatric hospital in the Czech Republic. In collaboration with the experimental theatre company Akanda, the play has been performed for the patients and staff of Bohnice as well as for general audiences over five nights and filmed by the artist. In so doing, Thauberger blurs the wall that generally separates the audience from the actors on stage. <o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN"><o:p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></o:p></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN">Thauberger’s works are often developed in collaboration with the people depicted, </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">offering the participants opportunities for self-exploration and self-definition</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN">. Her final works, usually films and/or photographs that record the collaborations, are remarkable documents that engage and surprise the audience. <o:p></o:p></span></font></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN"><o:p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"> </font></o:p></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">Best wishes and looking forward to seeing you there<o:p></o:p></font></font></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB" lang="EN-GB"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">Mat Schulze and Sylvia Gilke </font></span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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