Peter Brook
Peter Brook at the Peter Brook: Empty Space Awards, London, in November 2009
Born	Peter Stephen Paul Brook (1925-03-21) 21 March 1925 (age 87) Chiswick, west London
Occupation	Director

Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE (born 21 March 1925) is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.

Biography[link]

Life[link]

Brook was born in London in March 1925, the son of Simon Brook and his wife Ida (Jansen), two Jewish immigrants. He was educated at Gresham's School and Magdalen College, Oxford.

He directed Dr Faustus, his first 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 Dalí and also an effective re-staging of Puccini’s 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 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 Bouffes du Nord theatre.^[1] In 2008 he made the decision to resign as artistic director of Bouffes du Nord, handing over to Olivier Mantei and Olivier Poubelle in 2008.^[2]

Influences[link]

His work is inspired by the theories of experimental theatre of Jerzy Grotowski,^[3] Bertolt Brecht, Chris Covics, Meyerhold, G. I. Gurdjieff^[4] and the works of Edward Gordon Craig and Stuart Davis,^{[citation needed]} as well as Matila Ghyka.^[5]

Brook was influenced by the work of Antonin Artaud and his ideas for his Theatre of Cruelty. His major influence however was Joan Littlewood. Brook described her as "the most galvanising director in mid-20th century Britain".

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 find 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

[edit] The Mahabharata

In the mid 1970s,^[6] Brook, with writer Jean-Claude Carrière, began work on adapting the Indian epic poem the Mahābhārata into a stage play which was first performed in 1985^[7] and then later into a televised mini series. The production using an international cast caused heated intercultural debate. Negative criticism came from Indian scholar Pradip Bhattacharya who felt that Brook's interpretation "was not a portrayal of a titanic clash between the forces of good and evil, which is the stuff of the epic... [but] the story of the warring progeny of some rustic landlord".^[8]

[edit] Tierno Bokar

In 2005 Brook directed Tierno Bokar, based on the life of the Malian sufi 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.^[9]

Work[link]

Major productions for the RSC[link]

• 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 Scofield
• 1964 Marat/Sade
• 1966 US an anti-Vietnam 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

Other major productions[link]

• 1955 : Hamlet with Paul Scofield
• The Visit with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne
• 1964 : Marat/Sade
• Oedipus with John Gielgud and Irene Worth
• 1971-72 : Orghast in Persepolis by Ted Hughes
• 1975 : The Ik 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 et 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, 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 extrait du 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 et Marie-Hélène Estienne after Antonin Artaud, Edward Gordon Craig, Charles Dullin, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Motokiyo Zeami and William Shakespeare

Filmography[link]

• 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)

Awards[link]

• Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for Marat/Sade, 1966^[10]
• 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 tragédie de Carmen
• Prix Italia, 1984
• International Emmy Award, 1990, for The Mahabharata
• Dan David prize, 2005
• The Ibsen Award for 2008, first winner of the prize of NOK2.5 mill (approximately £200,000).^[11]
• Critics' Circle Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts 2008

Honours[link]

• Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 1965
• 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
• Officier de l'Ordre de la Légion d'honneur (France), 1995
• Companion of Honour, 1998

Bibliography[link]