How an encounter in Micawber made writer Doug Wright a sadist

"Monsieur Bouloir was a man whose sexual appetites might discreetly be described as 'post-mortem.' A habitue of cemeteries, his proudest conquest was that of a maid six decades his senior, deceased a dozen years. The vigor with which he frigged caused her bones to dislodge. Still he granted her the highest compliment he accorded to any woman: 'Well Worth The Dig!' "

This haunting anecdote is just one of the many pornographic stories fiendishly told by the Marquis de Sade in Doug Wright's play "Quills." If the title sounds familiar, you're probably remembering the movie "Quills" — made from Wright's adapted screenplay.

The film was released this past fall and garnered three Academy Award Nominations, including a Best Actor nomination for the Marquis' actor, Geoffrey Rush. But Rush wasn't the only headlining actor.

The movie's cast list also boasted such stars as Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, Billie Whitelaw and Michael Caine. Hard to believe that this movie, with its stellar cast list, was conceived right across the street from campus in Micawber Books.

Playwright and screenwriter Doug Wright was working at Princeton University as a Hodder Fellow when he discovered a newly released biography of the Marquis de Sade at Micawber.

A Yale graduate, Wright received his Master of Fine Arts from New York University and even temporarily shared a living space in New York with the musical "Rent's" creator Jonathan Larson.

However, even though a biography inspired his play and future movie, Wright admits that the script of "Quills" is largely fictional.

"The name of the movie isn't Marquis or De Sade because the movie isn't solely about the Marquis. The play is titled "Quills" deliberately because it is about writing and the transgressive act of writing," Wright contended in an interview. "For me, the play is about how the oppressor always ends up becoming the artist's best muse. A gift to any artist is to say, 'Don't write that.' "

In "Quills," the prominent leaders of an asylum attempt to censor the Marquis' writing and even confiscate his writing quills. But this has relatively no effect on the Marquis, who resorts to such efforts as scribbling on his sheets in wine, pricking his own fingertips for use as inkwells, and even scrawling on the walls in his own feces. Despite all the restrictions enforced by the asylum leaders, (which even include amputating his limbs), the Marquis still maintains the motto, "In conditions of adversity, the artist thrives."

In a twist of irony, these conditions of adversity became all too real for Wright as he worked to adapt his play into a screenplay for film. Wright often had to fight to transfer the dialogue from the play to his screenplay.

During the adaptation process, he felt that he was being forced to "sanitize" the Marquis, and, despite his efforts, Wright still had to sacrifice many favorite scenes and lines from the play merely because of the differences between film and theatre.

"I told myself before we started making the movie how different film would be from the stage," Wright said, "but it was a lesson that I had to keep learning five times a day while we were filming."

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One of Wright's lessons occurred while filming a dramatic scene with Kate Winslet. After a couple takes of the scene, Winslet approached Wright, telling him, "I don't need that line there. I can show that with my face." The scene was shot again, minus the line, and Wright discovered once again the power of the camera.

"I started to realize that the design elements and the ways in which scenes were shot often compensated for my writing," he said.

Before the movie's critical success, Wright's play debuted at the New York Theatre Workshop in Nov. 1995 and for years, was performed at many regional theaters.

Wright attends many of these productions in cities such as Philadelphia and New York City, always interested in seeing the different interpretations of his writing.

However, though they are autonomous, the shows do not always differ that greatly. Wright notes that in every production, the priest kneels at the same moment in a certain scene — despite the lack of a written stage direction. Wright merely considers this a sign of the clarity of his script.

"Every director always feels so proud about that moment, asking me, ''Oh, do you like the kneeling? We discovered that movement one day in rehearsal,' " he said. "But I never tell them that every other priest I've ever seen kneels at that same moment also."

Wright hopes that the success of the movie "Quills" might prompt college campuses to perform the play, instead of just remaining within the regional theater circuit.

His next project will be to direct three one-act plays of his in New York this fall. These plays were performed at McCarter Theatre in Jan. 2000 and once again, were conceived as a result of limitations forced upon Wright's writing.

"I was told to write three plays, each using no more than five actors and only minimal set pieces."

This strict specificity enabled Wright to write the plays more easily. But then again, what else could be expected from someone who believes that the oppressor is the artist's best muse?