'Utter filth and depravity': 200 walkout in outrage at sickening Royal Shakespeare play featuring nudity, torture by Taser and rape

Audience stunned by simulated sex acts

‘I knew it was supposed to be edgy but it was the worst kind of filth dressed up as quality theatre'



Theatregoers have been walking out of a ‘filthy and depraved’ Royal Shakespeare Company production in their droves, disgusted by its scenes of nudity, violence and rape.

On one night, 80 left Stratford-upon-Avon’s Royal Shakespeare Theatre during the play, Marat/Sade, which features simulated sex acts and torture by Taser.

It is set in a lunatic asylum in post-revolutionary France, where the infamous Marquis de Sade is directing a play about the last days of political thinker Jean Paul Marat using inmates as actors.

The play is set in a lunatic asylum in post-revolutionary France, where the infamous Marquis de Sade is directing a play about the last days of political thinker Jean Paul Marat using inmates as actors. Pictured here are Lisa Hammond as the narrator Herald and Jasper Britton as the Marquis de Sade

Hammond, Arsher Alli and Britton, from the Royal Shakespeare Company, in a scene from the play. Theatregoer Kate Dee criticised the production: 'They have got it badly wrong'

Written by Swedish playwright Peter Weiss, it has caused controversy since it was first staged in 1964.

But the new production – starring Jasper Britton as the Marquis de Sade and Lisa Hammond as the busty wheelchair-bound narrator Herald – is the most shocking yet.



In one of several scenes, actor Nicholas Day, who has starred in family-friendly shows such as Minder, Lovejoy and Midsomer Murders and plays Lavoisier in the production, is seen being raped.

With Imogen Doel as Charlotte Corday who murdered Marat. Written by Swedish playwright Peter Weiss, the play has caused controversy since it was first staged in 1964

Theatregoer Kate Dee, who left at the interval, said: ‘It was utter filth and depravity. The rape scene came just before the interval and many people did not return for the second half.’

The 25-year-old, from Worcester, added: ‘I knew it was supposed to be edgy but it was the worst kind of filth dressed up as quality theatre.

‘They have got it badly wrong. I don’t blame people for walking out. They took it too far this time.’

Last night the RSC admitted that, on average, 30 people had left the theatre each night since the production, commissioned to mark the company’s 50th birthday, opened on October 14.



But Michael Boyd, the Company’s Artistic Director, defended the production.

He said: ‘Marat/Sade changed the face of British theatre when it premiered in 1964.

QUEEN ELIZABETH'S FURY AT THE BARD William Shakespeare's plays have also been dogged by controversy. In 1597 the original version of the Bard's play Richard II contained a scene in which the king was deposed from his throne.

Queen Elizabeth I was so enraged that she ordered the scene removed from all copies of the play. King Lear was banned from the stage until 1820 - in deference to the insanity of the reigning monarch, King George III.

‘It’s a controversial play because the subjects it explores – insanity, individuality, sexuality, the abuse of power, freedom versus control – are just as sensitive today as they were in the 1960s. ’

Marat/Sade was translated from its original German in 1964 ahead of its first English-language production, directed by Peter Brook during his Theatre of Cruelty period.



Despite causing great controversy, it transferred to Broadway where it ran for nearly six months and picked up four Tony awards.

Dean Asker, RSC press chief, said everyone who booked for the current production ‘was sent a letter in advance about the nature of the play’.