Peter Brook

Peter Stephen Paul Brook (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) was an English theatre and film director. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential figures in the history of twentieth-century theatre, he has received various accolades, including two Tony Awards, the Praemium Imperiale, the Prix Italia and the Europe Theatre Prize. In 2021, he was awarded India's Padma Shri.

Brook was based in France from the early 1970s, where he founded an international theatre company, playing in developing countries, in an approach of great simplicity. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). With them, he directed the first English-language production in 1964 of Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss, which was transferred to Broadway in 1965 and won the Tony Award for Best Play, and Brook was named Best Director. He co-founded the International Centre for Theatre Research in 1970, and was its artistic director until 2008.

Brook's feature film credits included screen versions of plays like The Beggar's Opera (1953), Marat/Sade (1966), King Lear (1971), and The Mahabharata (1989); and literary adaptations such as Seven Days... Seven Nights (1960) with Jeanne Moreau, and Lord of the Flies (1963).

Early years and education Brook was born on 21 March 1925 in the Bedford Park area of Chiswick, The family home was at 27 Fairfax Road, Turnham Green. His first cousin was Valentin Pluchek, chief director of the Moscow Satire Theatre.

Brook was educated at Westminster School, Gresham's School, and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied languages until 1945. He was excused from military service during World War II due to childhood illness. He was engaged from 1945 as stage director at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre (BRT).

In 1946, Brook went to Stratford-upon-Avon to direct Love's Labour's Lost for the Stratford-Upon-Avon Festival Company at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, returning in 1947 to direct Romeo and Juliet . From 1947 to 1950, he was Director of Productions at the Royal Opera House in London. His work there included an effective re-staging of Puccini's La bohème using sets dating from 1899, in 1948, and a highly controversial staging of Salome by Richard Strauss with sets by Salvador Dalí in 1949. A proliferation of stage and screen work as producer and director followed. Howard Richardson's Dark of the Moon at the Ambassadors Theatre, London, in 1949 was an early, much admired production. From 1962, he was director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), together with Peter Hall. In 1966, they presented US, an anti-Vietnam War protest play. Bertolt Brecht, Chris Covics and Vsevolod Meyerhold and by the works of Edward Gordon Craig, and Matila Ghyka.

Brook considered G. I. Gurdjieff his spiritual master, but was guarded about Gurdjieff's influence:

"This is something so rich that nothing would be more harmful than trying to encapsulate it in a few easy phrases." - Peter Brook

Collaborators Brook collaborated with actors Paul Scofield as Lear, John Gielgud in Measure for Measure,

International Centre for Theatre Research

In 1971, 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 has been based in Paris at the Bouffes du Nord theatre since 1974. The troupe played at immigrant hostels, in villages and in refugee camps, In 2008 he resigned as its artistic director, beginning a three-year handover to Olivier Mantei and .

The Mahabharata

In the mid-1970s, Brook, with writer Jean-Claude Carrière, began work on adapting the Indian epic poem the Mahabharata into a stage play, which was first performed in 1985 and later developed into a televised mini series.

In a long article in 1985, The New York Times noted "overwhelming critical acclaim", and that the play "did nothing less than attempt to transform Hindu myth into universalized art, accessible to any culture". However, many post-colonial scholars have challenged the claim to universalism, accusing the play of orientalism. Gautam Dasgupta wrote that "Brook's Mahabharata falls short of the essential Indianness of the epic by staging predominantly its major incidents and failing to adequately emphasize its coterminous philosophical precepts."

In 2015, Brook returned to the world of The Mahabharata with a new Young Vic production, Battlefield, in collaboration with Jean-Claude Carrière and Marie-Hélène Estienne.

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-Hélène Estienne from a book by Amadou Hampâté Bâ (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.

Personal life In 1951, Brook married actress Natasha Parry. They had two children: Irina, an actress and director, and Simon, a director. Parry died of a stroke in July 2015, aged 84.

Death Brook died in Paris on 2 July 2022, aged 97. and others.

Shakespeare Brook was fascinated with the works of Shakespeare which he produced in England and elsewhere, in films, and adaptation. In 1945, he began with King John, with designer Paul Shelving at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. At the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, he directed Measure for Measure in 1950 both with John Gielgud, followed there by Hamlet Prince of Denmark in 1955, with Paul Scofield (Hamlet), Alec Clunes (Claudius), Diana Wynyard (Gertrude), Mary Ure (Ophelia), Ernest Thesiger (Polonius), Richard Johnson (Laertes), Michael David (Horatio), and Richard Pasco (Fortinbras). Titus Andronicus, with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, was played there the same year, and also on a European tour in 1957.

Brooks's 1953 staging of King Lear, for the American TV show Omnibus, starred Orson Welles in Welles's first-ever television production.

His first work for the Royal Shakespeare Company was in 1962 King Lear, with Paul Scofield. He created a legendary version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, with designer Sally Jacobs (designer), John Kane (Puck), Frances de la Tour (Helena), Ben Kingsley (Demetrius) and Patrick Stewart (Snout) in 1970. He directed the film King Lear, again with Scofield, in 1971.

He kept producing works by Shakespeare for the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, in French, including Timon d'Athènes, adaptated by Jean-Claude Carrière, 1974, Mesure pour mesure in 1978 and as a film a year later, La Tempête, adaptated by Carrière, with Sotigui Kouyaté in 1990.

He directed The Tragedy of Hamlet, with Adrian Lester (Hamlet), Jeffery Kissoon (Claudius / Ghost), Natasha Parry (Gertrude), Shantala Shivalingappa (Ophelia), Bruce Myers (Polonius), Rohan Siva (Laertes / Guildenstern), Scott Handy (Horatio) and Yoshi Oida (Player King / Rosencrantz) in 2000, followed by a TV film version in 2002. In 2009, he directed a theatrical version of sonnets, Love is my Sin. In 2010, Shakespeare was among the authors for the production Warum warum (Why Why), written by Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne after also Antonin Artaud, Edward Gordon Craig, Charles Dullin, Vsevolod Meyerhold and Zeami Motokiyo.

Works with RSC 1946: Love's Labour's 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) 1955: Titus Andronicus, with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh (Shakespeare Memorial Theatre) 1957: The Tempest, with John Gielgud (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) 1978: Antony and Cleopatra, with Glenda Jackson, Alan Howard, Jonathan Pryce, Alan Rickman, Juliet Stevenson, Patrick Stewart and David Suchet

Other major productions 1951: A Penny for a Song, by John Whiting 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, by Peter Weiss 1968: Oedipus with John Gielgud and Irene Worth, adapted by Ted Hughes, National Theatre 1971: Orghast, by Ted Hughes 1974: Timon d'Athènes, adaptation by Jean-Claude Carrière, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord 1975: Les Iks, by Colin Turnbull, adaptation Jean-Claude Carrière, Théâtre des Bouffes 1977: Ubu aux Bouffes, after Alfred Jarry, Théâtre des Bouffes 1978: Mesure pour mesure, by William Shakespeare, Théâtre des Bouffes 1979: La Conférence des oiseaux (The Conference of the Birds), after Farid al-Din Attar, Festival d'Avignon; Théâtre des Bouffes 1979: L'Os de Mor Lam, by Birago Diop, Théâtre des Bouffes 1981: La Tragédie de Carmen, after Prosper Mérimée, Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, Viviane Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center, New York City 1981: La Cerisaie, by Anton Chekhov, Théâtre des Bouffes 1984: Tchin-Tchin, by François Billetdoux, directed 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 by Jean-Claude Carrière, with Sotigui Kouyaté, Théâtre des Bouffes 1992: Impressions de Pelléas, after Claude Debussy, Théâtre des Bouffes 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 Zeami Motokiyo 1995: Oh les beaux jours, by Samuel Beckett 1998: Je suis un phénomène, after prodigieuse mémoire by Alexander Luria 1998: Don Giovanni by Mozart, for the 50th 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 by 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, Zeami Motokiyo and William Shakespeare 2011: A Magic Flute, an adaptation of Mozart's The Magic Flute, 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 and 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) with Jeanne Moreau and Jean-Paul Belmondo 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, three different versions, with successively in the title roles, Hélène Delavault, Zehava Gal and Eva Saurova 1989: The Mahabharata 2002: The Tragedy of Hamlet (TV) 2012: The Tightrope (documentary film, co-written and directed by Simon Brook)

Awards and honours Awards Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for Marat/Sade, 1966 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1971 Shakespeare Prize by the Hamburg-based Alfred Toepfer Foundation, 1973 Brigadier Prize, 1975, for Timon of Athens Grand Prix Dominique, 1981 Europe Theatre Prize, 1989 Praemium Imperiale, 1997 The Ibsen Award for 2008, first winner of the prize of NOK 2.5 mill (approximately £200,000). 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 Honorary DLitt, University of Birmingham, 1990 Honorary DLitt, University of Strathclyde, 1990 Honorary DLitt, University of Oxford, 1994 Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, 1998 Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur (France), 2013 Padma Shri (India), 2021

Europe Theatre Prize In 1989 he was awarded the II Europe Theatre Prize in Taormina, with the following motivation:In the field of world theatre of the second half of our century, the long theoretical and practical work of Peter Brook has – without any doubt – unrivalled merits, which are – broadly speaking – unique. Brook's first merit is that of having always pursued an authentic research outside the sterile 'routine' of what he has defined as 'Deadly Theatre'. Brook's second merit is that of having been able to use different languages of contemporary scene; in the same way he has been able to unify the variety of languages. Brook's third merit is that of having discovered and given back a bright vitality to some great cultural and theatrical heritages which hitherto had remained distant from us both in space and time. Nevertheless – without any doubt – Brook's noblest and most constant merit is that of having never separated the strictness and finesse of research from the necessity that the result of those ones would have had the audience as their receiver and interlocutor; the audience which is also requested to renew its habits.

Published works