Weiss, Peter

(1916-1982)

   Playwright. Weiss is best known internationally for Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean-Paul Marats dargestellt durch die Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton unter Anleitung des Herrn de Sade (The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat Performed by the Theater Group at the Asylum in Charenton under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, usually titled Marat/Sade in English, 1964). He made his debut as a playwright with Nicht mit Gästen (Not When Guests Are Present) at the Berlin Schiller Theater Werkstatt in 1963; in quick succession, there followed a number of plays, including the aforementioned Marat/Sade (likewise premiered at the Schiller Theater), though none of them achieved similar cult status.

   The first version of Marat/Sade was overtly Marxist in structure, with dialectical arguments between Marat and de Sade throughout; subsequent versions downplayed Weiss's political convictions (he was a lifelong Communist Party member). Peter Brook's 1965 London production was far less Marxist than the original, featuring theatrical excrescences of Antonin Artaud; Brook's 1967 film of the production bears witness to the much depoliticized version.

   Nearly all of Weiss's plays had extremely long titles, such as his Diskurs über die Vorgeschichte und den Verlauf des lang andauernden Befreiungskrieges in Vietnam als Beispiel für die Notwendigkeit des bewaffneten Kampfes der unterdrückten gegen ihre Unterdrücker sowie über die Versuche der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, die Grundlagen der Revolution zu vernichten (Discourse on the Historical Precedents and the Length of the Ongoing War of Liberation in Viet Nam as an Example of the Necessity of Armed Struggle by the Oppressed against Their Oppressors, such as Attempts by the United States of America to Exterminate the Bases of Revolution, usually titled Vietnam/Discourse, 1968).