Posted are two photos (from Ellis - see "Sources" below) from an East German production in 1964.Weiss was friends with Perten, the director, and made public statements which implied that Perten's take on the play (which he somewhat adapted for his production) which posited Marat as a socialist hero and martyr-type figure, was the only correct interpretation of his work (despite the fact that Perten cut and changed much of Weiss's original script, though the source does not clarify if these changes were approved by Weiss before production - in fact Ellis suggests that Weiss was not even aware of these changes or seemed to ignore them when he saw the production).
Weiss's "opinions of the drama's meaning were also affected by different productions of the play" (Ellis 33), and Ellis argues that Weiss's own interpretation of "Marat as the unequivicol 'moral victor' of the piece is not supported in the text" (34), but was a result of his shifting political sentiments and the influence of friends like Perten - Weiss's wife also suggested something similar in regards to the controversy over the "meaning" of the play. At any rate, it is unclear what Weiss intended with his production, but he was involved in the rehearsal process of the first production in Berlin at the Schiller Theatre (which Brook attended) (Cohen 62) . . . .
Right now I tend to agree with Cohen's statement about the much-debated "meaning" and interpretations of the play: "statements about Marat/Sade should should always contain a measure of doubt" (65).
Sources:
Ellis, Roger. Peter Weiss in Exile. Ann Arbor: UMI Research, 1987.
Cohen, Robert. Understanding Peter Weiss. Columbia: University of South Carolina, 1993.
(from Joma)
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