The Investigation

(Die Ermittlung, Oratorium en 11 Gesängen, RP Kahl, Germany, 2024)

Peter Weiss’ monumental 1965 stage play The Investigation: Oratorio in 11 Cantos arranges and condenses the testimonies of witnesses and responses of the accused during the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials of 1963-1965.

Among the greatest art works devoted to the Holocaust, it is structured in sections (‘cantos’) that build, across 4 hours, in their intensity and graphic description of detail.

Weiss deliberately abstracted the real proceedings: the words ‘German’ and ‘Jew’ are never spoken and, while the accused are identified, the witnesses are not.

Similarly, the final court sentences are elided. Ultimately, it is the enormous moral and ethical issues of guilt and responsibility that take precedence here.

This is far from a conventional courtroom drama. Weiss’ text streamlines the cut and thrust of legal proceedings into an implacable flow of spoken statements, as each witness calmly approaches the microphone and exits when finished.

In this ultra-faithful version for film devised by director RP (Rolf Peter) Kahl (A Thought of Ecstasy, 2017) and producer/co-writer Alexander van Dülmen, certain actors (many are internationally familiar faces from film and TV, including Clemens Schick and Christiane Paul) share multiple witness roles – while the accused remain stonily singular.

The testimonies are tersely dedramatised; emotions tremble under the surface.

The staging format, which may at first seem simple and repetitive, gradually reveals small but powerful variations in its presentation.

© Adrian Martin 27 November 2024