Peter Brook

CH, CBE
Peter Brook at the Peter Brook: Empty
Space Awards, London, in November
2009
Born Peter Stephen Paul Brook
21 March 1925
Chiswick, London
Occupation Director
Awards Tony Award for Best
Direction of a Play
1966 Marat/Sade
1971 A Mids
Peter Brook
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE
(born 21 March 1925) is an English
theatre and lm director and innovator,
who has been based in France since the
early 1970s.
Contents
1 Biography
1.1 Life
1.2 Inuences
1.3 The Mahabharata
1.4 Tierno Bokar
2 Work
2.1 Major productions for the
RSC
2.2 Other major productions
2.3 Filmography
3 Awards
4 Honours
5 Bibliography
5.1 By Brook
5.2 About Brook
6 References
7 External links
Biography
Life
Brook was born in London in March 1925, the son of Simon Brook and his wife
Ida (Jansen), two Jewish immigrants from Latvia.
[1]
He was educated at
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Westminster School, Gresham's School and Magdalen College, Oxford.
He directed Dr Faustus, his rst production, in 1943 at the Torch Theatre in
London, followed at the Chanticleer Theatre in 1945 with a revival of The Infernal
Machine. In 1947, he went to Stratford-upon-Avon as assistant director on Romeo
and Juliet and Love's Labour's Lost. From 1947 to 1950, he was Director of
Productions at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. His work there included a
highly controversial staging of Strauss Salome with sets by Salvador Dal and
also an eective re-staging of Puccinis La Boheme using sets dating from 1899. A
proliferation of stage and screen work as producer and director followed.
In 1951, Brook married the actress Natasha Parry; the couple have a son and a
daughter.
In 1970, with Micheline Rozan, Brook founded the International Centre for
Theatre Research, a multinational company of actors, dancers, musicians and
others which travelled widely in the Middle East and Africa in the early 1970s. It
is now based in Paris at the Boues du Nord theatre.
[2]
In 2008 he made the
decision to resign as artistic director of Boues du Nord, handing over to Olivier
Mantei and Olivier Poubelle in 2008.
[3]
Inuences
Brook was inuenced by the work of Antonin Artaud and his ideas for his Theatre
of Cruelty.
In England, Peter Brook and Charles Marowitz undertook The Theatre
of Cruelty Season (1964) at the Royal Shakespeare Company, aiming to
explore ways in which Artaud's ideas could be used to nd new forms of
expression and retrain the performer. The result was a showing of
'works in progress' made up of improvisations and sketches, one of
which was the premier of Artaud's The Spurt of Blood.
Lee Jamieson, Antonin Artaud: From Theory to Practice,
Greenwich Exchange, 2007
His major inuence, however, was Joan Littlewood. Brook described her as "the
most galvanising director in mid-20th century Britain".
Brook's work is also inspired by the theories of experimental theatre of Jerzy
Grotowski,
[4]
Bertolt Brecht, Chris Covics and Vsevolod Meyerhold and by the
works of G. I. Gurdjie,
[5]
Edward Gordon Craig,
[6]
and Matila Ghyka.
[7]
The Mahabharata
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In the mid 1970s,
[8]
Brook, with writer Jean-Claude Carrire, began work on
adapting the Indian epic poem the Mahbhrata into a stage play which was rst
performed in 1985
[9]
and then later into a televised mini series.
Tierno Bokar
In 2005 Brook directed Tierno Bokar, based on the life of the Malian su of the
same name. The play was adapted for the stage by Marie-Helene Estienne from a
book by Amadou Hampate Ba (translated into English as A Spirit of Tolerance:
The Inspiring Life of Tierno Bokar). The book and play detail Bokar's life and
message of religious tolerance. Columbia University produced 44 related events,
lectures, and workshops that were attended by over 3,200 people throughout the
run of Tierno Bokar. Panel discussions focused on topics of religious tolerance
and Muslim tradition in West Africa.
[10]
Work
Major productions for the RSC
1950 Measure for Measure with John Gielgud (Shakespeare Memorial
Theatre)
1952 The Winter's Tale with John Gielgud (Shakespeare Memorial Theatre)
1958 Titus Andronicus with Laurence Olivier (Shakespeare Memorial
Theatre)
1962 King Lear with Paul Scoeld
1964 Marat/Sade
1966 US an anti-Vietnam protest play with The Royal Shakespeare Company,
documented in the lm Benet of the Doubt
1970 A Midsummer Night's Dream with John Kane (Puck), Frances de la Tour
(Helena), Ben Kingsley (Demetrius) and Patrick Stewart (Snout): see 1970
Royal Shakespeare Company production of A Midsummer Night's Dream
Other major productions
1955 : Hamlet with Paul Scoeld
1958 : The Visit with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne
1964 : Marat/Sade
1968 : Oedipus with John Gielgud and Irene Worth
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1971-72 : Orghast in Persepolis by Ted Hughes
1974 : Timon d' Athnes, adaptation Jean-Claude Carrire, Thtre des
Boues du Nord
1975 : The Iks by Colin Turnbull, adaptation Jean-Claude Carrire, Thtre
des Boues du Nord
1977 : Ubu aux Boues after Alfred Jarry, Thtre des Boues du Nord
1978 : Mesure pour mesure by William Shakespeare, Thtre des Boues du
Nord
1979 : La Confrence des oiseaux (The Conference of the Birds) after Farid
al-Din Attar, Festival d'Avignon, Thtre des Boues du Nord
1979 : L'Os de Mor Lam by Birago Diop, Thtre des Boues du Nord
1981 : La Tragdie de Carmen after Prosper Mrime, Henri Meilhac and
Ludovic Halvy, Viviane Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center, New York
1981 : La Cerisaie by Anton Chekhov, Thtre des Boues du Nord
1984 : Tchin-Tchin by Franois Billetdoux, mise en scne with Maurice
Bnichou, with Marcello Mastroianni, Thtre Montparnasse
1985 : Le Mahabharata, (The Mahabharata) Festival d'Avignon
1988 : The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, Majestic Theatre, Brooklyn
1989 : Woza Albert! by Percy Mtawa, Mbongeni Ngema et Barney Simon
1990 : La Tempte by William Shakespeare, adaptation Jean-Claude Carrire,
with Sotigui Kouyat, Thtre des Boues du Nord
1992 : Impressions de Pellas after Claude Debussy, Thtre des Boues du
Nord
1993 : L'Homme Qui after The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver
Sacks
1995 : Qui est l after texts by Antonin Artaud, Bertolt Brecht, Edward
Gordon Craig, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Stanislavski and Motokiyo Zeami
1995 : Oh les beaux jours by Samuel Beckett
1998 : Je suis un phnomne after prodigieuse mmoire by Alexander Luria
1998 : Don Giovanni by Mozart, cration au 50me Festival international
d'art lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence
1999 : Le Costume by Can Themba
2000 : Hamlet by William Shakespeare, with Adrian Lester
2002 : Far Away by Caryl Churchill
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2002 : La Mort de Krishna extrait du Mahabharata de Vyasa, adaptation
Jean-Claude Carrire and Marie-Hlne Estienne
2003 : Ta main dans la mienne by Carol Rocamora
2004 : Tierno Bokar after Vie et enseignement de Tierno Bokar-Le sage de
Bandiagara by Amadou Hampt B, with Sotigui Kouyat
2004 : Le Grand Inquisiteur after The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky
2006 : Sizwe Banzi est mort by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston
Ntshona, Festival d'Avignon
2008 : Fragments after Samuel Beckett
2009 : Love is my sin sonnets by William Shakespeare
2009 : 11 and 12 after Vie et enseignement de Tierno Bokar-Le Sage de
Bandiagara by Amadou Hampt B
2010 : Warum warum by Peter Brook et Marie-Hlne Estienne after Antonin
Artaud, Edward Gordon Craig, Charles Dullin, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Motokiyo
Zeami and William Shakespeare
2011 : A Magic Flute an adaptation of the opera The Magic Flute by Mozart.
Directed with Marie-Hlne Estienne, Composer Franck Krawczyk to positive
reviews (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/arts/music/a-streamlined-
magic-ute-reimagined-by-peter-brook.html) at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater
of John Jay College.
2013 : The Suit after Can Themba's tale. Directed with Marie-Hlne
Estienne, Franck Krawczyk.
Filmography
1953, The Beggar's Opera
1960, Moderato Cantabile (UK title Seven Days... Seven Nights)
1963, Lord of the Flies
1967, Ride of the Valkyrie
1967, Marat/Sade
1968, Tell Me Lies
1971, King Lear
1979, Meetings with Remarkable Men
1979, Mesure pour mesure
1982, La Cerisaie
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1983, La Tragdie de Carmen
1989, The Mahabharata
2002, The Tragedy of Hamlet (TV)
Awards
Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for Marat/Sade, 1966
[11]
Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for A Midsummer Night's Dream,
1971
Freiherr von Stein Foundation Shakespeare Award, 1973
Grand Prix Dominique, 1975
Brigadier Prize, 1975, for Timon of Athens
Society of West End Theatre Award, 1983
Emmy Award, 1984, for La tragdie de Carmen
Prix Italia, 1984
Europe Theatre Prize.
[12]
International Emmy Award, 1990, for The Mahabharata
Praemium Imperiale, 1997
Dan David prize, 2005
The Ibsen Award for 2008, rst winner of the prize of NOK2.5 mill
(approximately 200,000).
[13]
Critics' Circle Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts 2008
Honours
Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 1965
Induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame, 1983
[14]
Honorary DLitt, University of Birmingham, 1990
Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, 1991
Honorary DLitt, University of Strathclyde, 1990
Honorary DLitt, University of Oxford, 1994
Ocier de l'Ordre de la Lgion d'honneur (France), 1995
Companion of Honour, 1998
Commandeur de la Lgion d'honneur (France), 2013
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Bibliography
By Brook
Brook, Peter (1968). The Empty Space. Penguin (2008).
Brook, Peter (1988). The Shifting Point. UK: Methuen Drama.
ISBN 0-413-61280-5.
Brook, Peter (1991). Le Diable c'est l'ennui.
Brook, Peter (1993). There Are No Secrets. Methuen Drama.
Brook, Peter (1995). The Open Door.
Brook, Peter (1998). Threads of Time: Recollections.
Brook, Peter (1999). Evoking Shakespeare. Nick Hern Books (2nd Ed 2002).
About Brook
Jamieson, Lee, Antonin Artaud: From Theory to Practice (Greenwich
Exchange: London, 2007) Contains practical exercises on Artaud drawn from
Brook's Theatre of Cruelty Season at the RSC. ISBN 978-1-871551-98-3
Freeman, John, 'The Greatest Shows on Earth: World Theatre from Peter
Brook to the Sydney Olympics'. Libri: Oxford ISBN 978 1 907471 54 4
Heilpern, John, Conference of the Birds: The Story of Peter Brook in Africa,
Faber, 1977, ISBN 0-571-10372-3
Hunt, Albert and Georey Reeves. Peter Brook (Directors in Perspective).
Cambridge University Press. (1995)
Kustow, Michael. Peter Brook: A Biography. Bloomsbury. (2005)
Mott, Dale, Between Two Silences: Talking with Peter Brook (1999)
Todd, Andrew and Jean-Guy Lecat, The Open Circle: Peter Brook's Theatre
Environments (2003)
Trewin, J. C. Peter Brook: A Biography. (1971)
Trowbridge, Simon. The Company: A Biographical Dictionary of the Royal
Shakespeare Company. Oxford: Editions Albert Creed, 2010. ISBN
978-0-9559830-2-3.
Zohar, Ouriel, Meetings with Peter Brook, Zohar, Tel-Aviv 176 p. (1990) (He).
References
Peter Brook - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_...
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^ Aronson, Arnold (2005-05-25). "Peter
Brook: A Biography"
(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05
/24/arts/24iht-bookwed.html?_r=0).
The New York Times.
1.
^ Chambers, Colin The Continuum
Companion To Twentieth Century
Theatre (Continuum, 2002, ISBN
0-8264-4959-X) p. 384
2.
^ Chrisas, Angelique (2008-12-17).
"Interview: Peter Brook says a long
goodbye to his Paris theatre"
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage
/2008/dec/17/peter-brook-boues-
nord-paris). London: Guardian.
Retrieved 2008-12-29.
3.
^ Brook, Peter (1968). The Empty
Space.
4.
^ Nicolescu, Basarab; Williams, David
(1997). "Peter Brook and Traditional
Thought"
(http://www.experimentaltheatre.org
/peter_brook.htm). Contemporary
Theatre Review (Overseas Publishers
Association) 7: 1123.
doi:10.1080/10486809708568441
(http://dx.doi.org
/10.1080%2F10486809708568441).
5.
^ "Pas de deux"
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage
/2009/mar/07/isadora-duncan) by
Michael Holroyd, The Guardian,
Saturday 7 March 2009
6.
^ Gibbons, Fiachra The prayers of
Peter Brook
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage
/2010/jan/17/peter-brook-eleven-
twelve) The Guardian, 17 January
2010.
7.
^ Morgenstern, Joe (April 17, 1988).
"Jean-Claude Pierre; the Mahabharata,
the great history of mankind -
interview about the stage adaptation"
(http://query.nytimes.com
/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE1DC143
AF934A25757C0A96E948260&
sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2). New
York Times. Retrieved 2007-10-06.
8.
^ Carriere, Jean-Claude (September
1989). "Jean-Claude Carriere; the
Mahabharata, the great history of
mankind - interview about the stage
adaptation" (http://ndarticles.com
/p/articles/mi_m1310/is_1989_Sept
/ai_8067489). UNESCO Courier.
Retrieved 2007-10-06.
9.
^ Columbia University, "Record of
Events"
(http://www.tiernobokar.columbia.edu)
10.
^ "Tony Awards"
(http://www.tonyawards.com
/p/tonys_search?start=0&year=&
award=&lname=Peter+Brook&
fname=&show=). Retrieved
2008-02-13.
11.
^ II Europe Theatre Prize / Reasons
(http://www.premio-europa.org
/open_page.php?id=728) Europe
Theatre Prize
12.
Peter Brook - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_...
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^ "British director wins the Ibsen
Prize" (http://www.norway.org/culture
/literature/ibsen+prize.htm).
Norway.org. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
13. ^ "Theater Hall of Fame Gets 10 New
Members" (http://www.nytimes.com
/1983/05/10/theater/theater-hall-of-
fame-gets-10-new-members.html). New
York Times. May 10, 1983.
14.
External links
Peter Brook ocial website (http://www.peterbrook.net)
The Company: A Biographical Dictionary of the RSC: Online database by
Simon Trowbridge (http://www.stratfordians.org.uk/)
Dan David Prize laureate 2005 (http://www.dandavidprize.org/index.php
/laureates/laureates-2005/65-2005-present-the-performing-arts-lm-theater-
dance-music/102-peter-brook.html)
Peter Brook biography and lmography (http://www.screenonline.org.uk
/people/id/471253) at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
Peter Brook (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0111656/) at the Internet Movie
Database
Screener for Brook by Brook (http://youtube.com/watch?v=hLni1arIeYM)
Peter Brook prole by Experimental Theatre Organization
(http://www.experimentaltheatre.org/new_page_1.htm)
Review of Brook's Mahabharata in Caravan Magazine
(http://www.caravanmagazine.in/Story/425/The-Mahabharata-of-Our-
Times.html)
Master's Degree in Urban Scenography in Barcelona (http://www.uic.es
/en/scenography)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Brook&
oldid=610281446"
Categories: 1925 births Living people English theatre directors
Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford British expatriates in France British Jews
English people of Russian-Jewish descent
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Ociers of the Lgion d'honneur Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale
Acting theorists American Theater Hall of Fame inductees
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