About the work
Madame de Sade is a three-act chamber drama by Yukio Mishima, first performed on 29 November 1965 at Kinokuniya Hall in Tokyo under the direction of Takeo Matsuura. Mishima drew on the historical Renée de Sade and on a Paris obscenity trial over his friend Tatsuhiko Shibusawa's translation of Sade's writings.
Plot
Every character is a woman: in the Paris salon of Madame de Montreuil, six women argue about loyalty, desire and morality between 1772 and 1790, while the Marquis de Sade himself never appears on stage. His wife Renée stands by him through years of imprisonment — only to refuse to reunite with him the moment he is finally released, choosing a convent instead.
Cultural significance
A 1994 critics' poll named the play the best Japanese postwar drama; it remains one of Mishima's most widely staged works abroad, especially in France. The German-language premiere took place in 1969 at the Staatstheater Oldenburg, with the German translation published by Rowohlt Theaterverlag.