Trotsky in Exile (1970), Peter Weiss' most controverted play, was rejected both by East Germany and by the West German left. Discussions centered narrowly on the content - did Trotsky or Lenin have the stronger arguments? how is Stalinist terror depicted? while ignoring all the formal strategies deployed by Weiss that destabilize any definitive meaning. Focusing on its Surrealist-inspired aesthetics and its obsession with illness and altered states, Cohens analysis emphasizes the play as therapeutic for the left's trauma of Stalinism and the eradication of Trotsky from its historiography.

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