The Investigation. This item is unavailable.The Investigation

The Investigation is a dramatic reconstruction of the Frankfurt War Crimes trials of 1963-1965, based on the actual evidence given. Weiss was an observer at the trials and developed the play partially from the reports of Bernd Naumann. This testimony, concerning Auschwitz and the atrocities which were enacted there, was been edited and extracted by Peter Weiss into a dramatic document that relies solely and completely on the facts for its effectiveness.

There is no artistic license, no manipulation of facts and figures, no rearrangement of events for theatrical effect. Nameless witnesses stand and recall their appalling memories of Auschwitz, allowing us to bear witness to their painful and painstaking search for truth and ultimately justice. What emerges is a chastening and purging documentary of deeply moving power.

The play premiered simultaneously in 14 cities in East and West Germany and London on October 19, 1965.

Peter Weiss was born in 1916 in Germany and settled in Sweden before the outbreak of World War II. Apart from his writing, he is also well-known as a surrealist-inspired painter, novelist, theatrical and operatic director and a film-maker. He died in 1982.

His magnificent play, Marat/Sade, established his reputation among English-speaking audiences as a revolutionary dramatist and has continued to be a best-selling classic. Its American production was awarded a Tony Award and its subsequent film adaptation was directed by Peter Brook. He is also well known for his historical work of fiction in three volumes, The Aesthetics of Resistance which concerned the resistance to facism in the late 1930s.