The esteemed British director, who has died aged 97, inspired each new generation of theatre creatives to be more daring and experimental
. The “theatre of cruelty” promoted by Artaud shaped two pieces of new writing on which Brook worked in the mid-60s: Marat/Sade , by the German dramatist Peter Weiss, and US , an improvised anti-Vietnam protest play. Highly controversial at the time for their scenes of nudity and violence, including the burning of a butterfly, these works are now generally seen as embarrassingly of their period.
Brook’s interest in eastern cultures extended to regimes of diet and exercise that kept him physically and mentally vigorous into his 90s. He remained a guru for directors who had stayed on the other side of the Channel, wrestling with English tastes and funding.
Brook’s final works continued to reflect this dichotomy. His book The Quality of Mercy: Reflections on Shakespeare was a brilliant compression of a lifetime’s intellectual and practical theatrical insights into England’s greatest playwright. Its subject matter and tone sometimes suggested a valedictory volume, but Brook found the time and energy to extend the shelf with a work about the power of words, Tip of the Tongue , and another about the uses of music, Playing by Ear .
However, his last stage productions in his home country – both co-directed with Marie-Hélène Estienne, the major collaborator of his later years – suggested that Brook’s non-Shakespearean theatre was now better in theory than practice. The Prisoner, which poignantly visited the National just a week after the memorial service for Peter Hall, was a meditation on crime and punishment that contained some thrilling ideas and images.
Histories of 20th century British theatre will contain numerous references to the two Peters. Hall’s immense achievement was to create the cultural cathedrals in Stratford and London, and make UK culture unthinkable without them. Brook, though, had greater influence on the imaginations of the directors who work inside those buildings and, following another of his examples, increasingly outside them.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Peter Brook obituaryRevered and influential theatre director who took drama out of the auditorium to stages and spaces all over the world
Read more »
Peter Dutton flags education reform
Read more »
Peter Brook obituaryRevered and influential theatre director who took drama out of the auditorium to stages and spaces all over the world
Read more »
Peter Dutton flags education reform
Read more »
Great auks and seal-headed men: a window into ice age ProvenceThe Cosquer cave near Marseille astonished the diver who discovered it with its ancient depictions of sea and land animals. Now it has been painstakingly recreated
Read more »
Mystery Road: Origin review – Jay Swan is back and as great as everThe outback detective investigates some strange robberies in this satisfying prequel series, which feels more like a six-hour film
Read more »