Mike Plays Convincing Lunatic Guitarist in "Marat/Sade"

In this critically-acclaimed March 2004 production at UC Berkeley, Mike joined five other fine musicians in the dramatic equivalent of walking and chewing gum: acting and playing music.

"Marat/Sade" is a masterful play-within-a-play: it is 1808, and the Marquis de Sade is staging a play at the lunatic asylum in which he has been effectively imprisoned, using the inmates to depict the life and death of Revolutionary propagandist Jean-Paul Marat. But this play is not merely a play: it's a musical!

Or something like it, at least. Six inmate musicians provide the accompaniment for two-and-a-half hours of songs and speeches which range from the comic to the horrific.

The production was itself masterful, and received a stellar review in the Berkeley Daily Planet.

Mike's performance was praised by cast, crew, and audience alike, not only for his solid guitar playing, but also for his tuba-humping during the "Copulation Round" and especially for his impressive, all-natural afro.

The role was Mike's first onstage role since portraying a half-naked love slave in the 2000 production of G. F. Handel's "Alcina" at Dartmouth College.