MADAME DE SADE Yukio Mishima

COMPANY Toneelgroep Amsterdam

DIRECTED BY Krzysztof Warlikowski

ACTING Barry Atsma , Marieke Heebink , Hugo Koolschijn , Alwin Pulinckx , Eelco Smits , Leon Voorberg

COSTUMES Malgorzata Szcesniak

STAGE DESIGN Malgorzata Szcesniak

LIGHTING Felice Ross

'Madame De Sade' by the Japanese author Yukio Mishima is the second play the Polish director Krzysztof Warlikowski is staging for Toneelgroep Amsterdam, having previously directed 'Droomsporen'. Mishima makes use of De Sade's uncompromising liberal philosophy to tell a story of eroticism, beauty and cruelty. Madame de Montreuil urges her daughter Renée to divorce her husband, the Marquis De Sade. He is in prison for indecent sexual practices. Renée continues stubbornly to defend her husband against the accusations of the outside world. This is because De Sade was able to teach her the power of the imagination. An act of resistance against the prevailing morality of the aristocracy, a portent of the radical social changes that would take place under the French Revolution. Five women speak: the mother, the two daughters and two female friends. The extraordinary thing about this play is that all the female characters apart from the maid are played by men.