English theatre and film director and innovatorFor the painter, see Peter Brook (painter).For other uses, see Peter Brooks (disambiguation).Not to be confused with Peter Brooke, Baron Brooke of Sutton Mandeville.

Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH CBE (born 21 March 1925) is an English theatre and film director who has been based in France since the early 1970s. He has won multiple Tony and Emmy Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, the Praemium Imperiale, and the Prix Italia. He has been called "our greatest living theatre director".

With the Royal Shakespeare Company, Brook directed the first English-language production of Marat/Sade in 1964. It transferred to Broadway in 1965 and won the Tony Award for Best Play, and Brook was named Best Director.

He was also awarded India's fourth highest civilian honor Padma Shri in 2021 for his valuable contributions towards art.

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Career
  • 2.1 Influences
  • 2.2 Collaborators
  • 2.3 Shakespeare
  • 2.4 The Mahabharata
  • 2.5 Tierno Bokar
• 3 Personal life
• 4 Work
  • 4.1 Works with RSC
  • 4.2 Other major productions
  • 4.3 Filmography
• 5 Awards
• 6 Honours
• 7 Bibliography
• 8 References
• 9 Further reading
• 10 External links

Early life

Brook was born in the Bedford Park area of Chiswick, London, the second son of Simon Brook and his wife Ida (Jansen), both Lithuanian Jewish immigrants from Latvia. The family home was at 27 Fairfax Road, Turnham Green. His elder brother was the psychiatrist and psychotherapist Alexis Brook (1920-2007). 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. Brooks was excused from military service in World War II due to childhood illness.

Career

Bouffes du Nord theatre, Paris

Brook 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 *istant 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 in London. His work there included a highly controversial staging of Richard Strauss's Salome with sets by Salvador Dalí, and an effective re-staging of Puccini's La bohème using sets dating from 1899. A proliferation of stage and screen work as producer and director followed. Dark of the Moon by Howard Richardson (1948–49), at the Amb*adors Theatre, London, was an early, much admired production.

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 has been based in Paris at the Bouffes du Nord theatre since 1974. He announced in 2008 that he would resign as artistic director of Bouffes du Nord, beginning that year a three-year handover to Olivier Mantei and Olivier Poubelle.

Influences

Brook has been influenced 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 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

His greatest influence, 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, Bertolt Brecht, Chris Covics and Vsevolod Meyerhold and by the works of G. I. Gurdjieff, Edward Gordon Craig, and Matila Ghyka.

Collaborators

Brook has collaborated with a range of directors, writers and actors during his career, notable examples include actors Paul Scofield and Glenda Jackson; designers Georges Wakhévitch and Sally Jacobs, and writers Ted Hughes and William Golding. Brook first encountered Wakhévitch in London when he saw the production of Jean Cocteau's ballet Le Jeune Homme et la Mort which Wakhévitch designed. Brook declared that he "was convinced that this was the designer for whom I had been waiting".

Shakespeare

• King John, Paul Shelving (designer) the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, 1945
• Measure for Measure with John Gielgud (Shakespeare Memorial Theatre) 1950
• The Winter's Tale with John Gielgud (Shakespeare Memorial Theatre) 1952
• Hamlet Prince of Denmark with Paul Scofield (Hamlet), Alec Clunes (Claudius), Diana Wynyard (Gertrude), Mary Ure (Ophelia), Ernest Thesiger (Polonius), Richard Johnson (Laertes), Michael David (Horatio), Richard Pasco (Fortinbras) (plus 27 others) 1955
• *us Andronicus with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh (Shakespeare Memorial Theatre)1955 and European tour in 1957
• King Lear with Paul Scofield (RSC) 1962
• A Midsummer Night's Dream with Sally Jacobs (designer), John Kane (Puck), Frances de la Tour (Helena), Ben Kingsley (Demetrius) and Patrick Stewart (Snout) 1970
• King Lear (film) 1971
• Timon d'Athènes, adaptation Jean-Claude Carrière, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord 1974
• Mésure pour mésure, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, 1978
• Mésure pour mésure (film) 1979
• La Tempête, adaptation Jean-Claude Carrière, with Sotigui Kouyaté, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord,1990
• 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) Yoshi Oida (Player King / Rosencrantz) 2000
• The Tragedy of Hamlet (TV film) 2002
• Love is my sin, sonnets, 2009
• Warum warum by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne after Antonin Artaud, Edward Gordon Craig, Charles Dullin, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Motokiyo Zeami and William Shakespeare, 2010

The Mahabharata

Main article: The Mahabharata (play)

In the mid-1970s, 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 and then later 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 postcololonial scholars have challenged the claim to universalism, accusing the play of orientalism. For instance, Gautam Dasgupta writes 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 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.

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.

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)
• 1955 *us 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, do*ented 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

• 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
• 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 Montparn*e
• 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 *le 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)
• 2012: The Tightrope (do*entary film, co-written and directed by Simon Brook)

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
• 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
• Europe Theatre Prize.
• International Emmy Award, 1990, for The Mahabharata
• Praemium Imperiale, 1997
• Dan David prize, 2005
• The Ibsen Award for 2008, first winner of the prize of NOK2.5 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 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 (He previously declined a knighthood.)
• Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur (France), 2013
• In 2011, he was awarded the President's Medal by the British Academy.
• Princess of Asturias Award in Arts, 2019
• Padma Shri (India), 2021

Bibliography

• 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. ISBN:978-1-55936-102-6.
• Brook, Peter (1998). Threads of Time: Recollections. ISBN:978-1-887178-35-8.
• Brook, Peter (1999). Evoking Shakespeare. Nick Hern Books (2nd Ed 2002).
• Brook, Peter (23 April 2013). The Quality of Mercy: Reflections on Shakespeare. Nick Hern Books. ISBN:978-1-84842-261-2.
• Brook, Peter (14 September 2017). Tip of The Tongue: Reflections on Language and Meaning. Nick Hern Books. ISBN:978-1-84842-672-6.
• Brook, Peter (24 October 2019). Playing by Ear: Reflections on Sound and Music. Nick Hern Books. ISBN:978-1-84842-831-7.

References

Further reading

• 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:978-1-90747-154-4
• Heilpern, John, Conference of the Birds: The Story of Peter Brook in Africa, Faber, 1977; ISBN:0-571-10372-3
• Hunt, Albert and Geoffrey Reeves. Peter Brook (Directors in Perspective). Cambridge University Press. (1995)
• Kustow, Michael. Peter Brook: A Biography. Bloomsbury. (2005)
• Moffitt, 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)(in Hebrew)

External links

• Official Peter Brook website – Site officiel
• The Company: A Biographical Dictionary of the RSC: Online database by Simon Trowbridge
• Dan David Prize laureate 2005
• Peter Brook biography and filmography at the BFI's Screenonline
• Peter Brook at IMDb
• Peter Brook at the Internet Broadway Database
• Peter Brook at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Screener for Brook by Brook on YouTube
• Peter Brook profile by Experimental Theatre Organization
• Review of Brook's Mahabharata in Caravan Magazine
• Portraits of Peter Brook at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• Master's Degree in Urban Scenography in Barcelona Archived 10 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine