Wednesday, October 9, 1996
THEATER:
Bold comedy touches on issues of censorship, sexual desireBy
Sona Stepanian
Daily Bruin Contributor
The Geffen Playhouse opens its inaugural season with "Quills,"
Doug Wright’s humorously bold comedy about the Marquis de Sade’s
final days at Charenton mental asylum.
"Quills," which opens tonight and runs through Nov. 3, presents
a raw commentary on art censorship and even tackles psychological
issues arising from the repression of sexual desires.
The play, set in 1807 France, centers around the Marquis De
Sade’s incessant writings which frequently border on pornography.
With hopes of ending her isolation from Parisian society, Renee
Pelagie, the Marquis’ wife, demands that Dr. Royer-Collard, the
asylum’s chief doctor, silence her husband by taking away his
quills, the instruments of his self-expression.
From within his lavishly furnished cell, the Marquis de Sade,
brilliantly portrayed by Howard Hesseman, prolifically churns
stories full of sexual innuendo, the unholy behavior of clergymen
and morbid tales of sadism. Although the Marquis’ stories are full
of sexual perversion, the vivid and highly possible details of them
leave one questioning the easy dismissal of the Marquis as simply
being insane.
Finding it in his own best financial and personal interest, Dr.
Royer-Collard agrees to please the Marquis’ wife and enlists the
help of the Abbe de Coulmier as the administrator of his fiendish,
cruel and gradual torture of the Marquis.
With one quick gesture, the Marquis’ quills are taken away and
the audience is challenged with the notions of censorship and an
artists battle to overcome it. As the play progresses, the Marquis
ingeniously finds new methods of expression, at times turning his
own fingers into quills and his own blood and feces into ink.
With each newly written word, whether upon his clothes or his
bed sheets, the Marquis aggravates the doctor and incites the
initially compassionate Abbe to physical harm, which eventually
culminates in the eternal silence of the Marquis.
Amidst all this chaos and physical and mental torture, the
audience is spellbound with fast-paced, intricate dialogue. The
Marquis’ stories constantly propose to tell tales within a tale and
further blur the lines of what is fantasy and reality in a society
so ready to judge another’s indiscretions while partaking in
self-indulgent feasts themselves.
Through the use of very dense yet beautifully descriptive and
highly racy language for that time, "Quills" presents a web of
stories which maintain the audience’s interest and heighten the
suspense of the plot, leaving one to only ponder the formidable end
of his writings.
Hesseman’s portrayal of the extremely creative Marquis de Sade
is very impressive. His fast tongue, continual sneers, wicked
laughter and daunting looks tease both his adversaries in the play
and the audience.
The ill-fated Abbe, played by Martin Rayner, also delivers a
very good presentation of a compassionate priest torn between his
vows to God and the constant psychological manipulations of the
doctor. The mental anguish accompanying the priest’s
decision-making processes eventually causes his emotional breakdown
and Rayner’s portrayal of the priest turned lunatic invites both
the genuine sympathy and eventual disgust of onlookers.
Along with the very natural acting, the stage also helps draw in
the audience. The set decoration extends all the way to the
entrance of the playhouse, with old wooden pieces of furniture,
torn up fabric strewn over the walls and the chandeliers all
imparting a sense of decay.
This theme of deterioration in the set design is explored
further in the theme of the entire play. The desperate desire to
control the Marquis’ body and mind eventually brings about the
demise of everyone involved in the play. The Marquis is stripped of
his quills, his means of self expression, his clothes and
eventually his life. The Abbe is stripped of his sanity and the
doctor loses control of his family and asylum.
Geffen Playhouse
Howard Hesseman’s ‘wicked laughter’ pervades "Quills."