More than 200 theatregoers have walked out of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s latest play Marat/Sade which features nudity, rape and torture.
Dozens of audience members have left at the interval each night since it began its run in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, in Stratford-upon-Avon 11 days ago.
Patrons have been particularly disturbed by a scene in which actor Nicholas Day is raped. Kate Dee, 25, from Worcester, said: ‘I knew it was supposed to be edgy but in reality it was the worst kind of filth dressed up as quality theatre.
‘I think they have got it badly wrong. I don’t blame people for walking out. They took it too far this time.’
First performed in 1963, the drama is set in a lunatic asylum in revolutionary France where the Marquis de Sade is directing a play about the last days of political thinker Jean Paul Marat using inmates as actors.
During the performance, a dwarf performs a sex act on a bishop, there are scenes of masturbation and a clergyman breaks wind on the heads of asylum inmates. The largest number to leave in one night was 80. ‘Theatre should bring people together and take the risk of sharing sensitivities in public,’ said RSC artistic director Michael Boyd.
