Peter Brook
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"What's the difference between a poor play and a good one? I think there's a very simple way of comparing them. A play in performance is a series of impressions; little dabs, one after another, fragments of information or feeling in a sequence which stir the audience's perceptions. A good play sends many such messages, often several at a time, often crowding, jostling, overlapping one another. The intelligence, the feelings, the memory, the imagination are all stirred. In a poor play, the impressions are well spaced out, they lope along in single file, and in the gaps the heart can sleep while the mind wanders to the day's annoyances and thoughts of dinner."--Peter Brook writing in the introduction to Marat/Sade |
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Peter Brook (1925 – 2022) was an English theatre and film director best known for directing Marat/Sade (1964) for the theater in 1965 and as a film in 1967.
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Work
Works with RSC
- 1946 Love's Labours Lost (Shakespeare Memorial Theatre)
- 1947 Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare Memorial Theatre)
- 1950 Measure for Measure with John Gielgud (Shakespeare Memorial Theatre)
- 1952 The Winter's Tale with John Gielgud (Shakespeare Memorial Theatre)
- 1957 The Tempest with John Gielgud (Shakespeare Memorial Theatre)
- 1958 Titus Andronicus with Laurence Olivier (Shakespeare Memorial Theatre)
- 1962 King Lear with Paul Scofield
- 1964 Marat/Sade
- 1966 US, an anti-Vietnam War protest play with The Royal Shakespeare Company, documented in the film Benefit 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
- 1978 Antony and Cleopatra with Glenda Jackson, Alan Howard, Jonathan Pryce, Alan Rickman, Juliet Stevenson, Patrick Stewart and David Suchet
Other major productions
- 1955 : Hamlet with Paul Scofield
- 1956 : A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller
- 1958 : The Visit with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne
- 1964 : Marat/Sade
- 1968 : Oedipus with John Gielgud and Irene Worth, adapted by Ted Hughes. National Theatre
- 1971 : Orghast by Ted Hughes
- 1974 : Timon d'Athènes, adaptation Jean-Claude Carrière, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord
- 1975 : Les Iks by Colin Turnbull, adaptation Jean-Claude Carrière, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord
- 1977 : Ubu aux Bouffes after Alfred Jarry, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord
- 1978 : Mesure pour mesure by William Shakespeare, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord
- 1979 : La Conférence des oiseaux (The Conference of the Birds) after Farid al-Din Attar, Festival d'Avignon; Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord
- 1979 : L'Os de Mor Lam by Birago Diop, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord
- 1981 : La Tragédie de Carmen after Prosper Mérimée, Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, Viviane Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center, New York
- 1981 : La Cerisaie by Anton Chekhov, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord
- 1984 : Tchin-Tchin by François Billetdoux, mise en scène with Maurice Bénichou, with Marcello Mastroianni, Théâtre 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 and Barney Simon
- 1990 : La Tempête by William Shakespeare, adaptation Jean-Claude Carrière, with Sotigui Kouyaté, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord
- 1992 : Impressions de Pelléas after Claude Debussy, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord
- 1993 : L'Homme Qui after The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
- 1995 : Qui est là after texts by Antonin Artaud, Bertolt Brecht, Edward Gordon Craig, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Konstantin Stanislavski and Motokiyo Zeami
- 1995 : Oh les beaux jours by Samuel Beckett
- 1998 : Je suis un phénomène after prodigieuse mémoire by Alexander Luria
- 1998 : Don Giovanni by Mozart, création au 50ème 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
- 2002 : La Mort de Krishna extract from Mahabharata de Vyasa, adaptation Jean-Claude Carrière and Marie-Hélène 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 Hampâté Bâ, with Sotigui Kouyaté
- 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 Hampâté Bâ
- 2010 : Warum warum by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène 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-Hélène Estienne, composer Franck Krawczyk to positive reviews at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater of John Jay College.
- 2013 : The Suit after Can Themba's tale. Directed with Marie-Hélène Estienne, Franck Krawczyk.
- 2015 : Battlefield, from The Mahabharata and Jean-Claude Carrière's play. Adapted and directed by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne.
- 2018 : The Prisoner. Written and directed by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne.
- 2019 : 'Why?' . Written and directed by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne.
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
- 1983: La Tragédie de Carmen
- 1989: The Mahabharata
- 2002: The Tragedy of Hamlet (TV)