Not only did Mr. Brooke encourage Scofield to play the titanic hero of tradition as a painfully flawed man, but just before production began, he threw out the set he had designed, ensuring that the plot would unfold on a bare stage below from simple lighting. The resulting epic unforgettably revealed the cruel absurdities of humanity.
Experiments and Questions
Mr Brooke had made extensive use of improvisation and theatrical games when rehearsing ‘The Balcony’, and in 1964, he took this process further in a series of experimental workshops sponsored by the RSC and called the season Theater of Cruelty, as a tribute price. in the theories of the French dramatist Antonin Artaud. The idea was to encourage a troupe of actors, including the young Glenda Jackson, to find new forms of physical and emotional expression and ask fundamental questions about their calling. As Mr. Brooke recalls in “Threads of Time,” these were: “What is written speech? What is a spoken word? Why do theater?’ Mr. Brooke never stopped asking such questions. His career from 1964 onwards can be seen as a search for fundamental truths about life and theater which he insisted could never be definitive. The search led to what he called the “Theater of Disorder” — as exemplified by “Marat/Sade,” the exploration of madness in revolutionary France. and “USA,” his evocation of the Vietnam War — and in works such as “The Man Who” and the 1996 play “Qui est La?”, which used readings from Bertolt Brecht, Konstantin Stanislavsky and others theorists and combined them with “Hamlet” as they might have directed it. Some perceived a shift in emphasis in his work. Many were dark, disturbing, even desperate: “Titus,” “Lear,” “US” and, in 1975, “The Ik,” involving an African tribe morally ruined by relocation and lack of food. Indeed, the most successful of the few films he eventually made was a 1963 version of William Golding’s ”Lord of the Flies,” which Mr. Brooke described as ”a full-blown story of humanity.” Mr. Brook’s still-famous 1970 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, full of aerial acrobatics derived from his visit to a Chinese circus, ended with smiling actors shaking hands with the audience. In “The Conference of the Birds,” based on a Sufi poem, the birds of the title find a new spiritual understanding when their long, turbulent journey ends at the threshold of paradise. And the 1985 reworking of “The Mahabharata” brought dynastic wars and suffering to the stage, only to end with another vision of heaven, this time as a place of music, food, conversation and harmony. The theatre, Mr Brooke wrote in his memoirs, should confirm “that light is present in the darkness” and be “a powerful antidote to despair”.
title: “Peter Brook Famed Director Of Scale And Humanity Has Died Aged 97 " ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-30” author: “Holly Calhoun”
He was never known to lose his temper during rehearsals, and would sometimes slip into an amusing detachment. But his seriousness was never in doubt. For Mr. Brooke, the theater was “a whole mirror of human existence, visible and invisible,” that should challenge both performers and audiences to reevaluate the world and their lives. Mr. Brook’s long and global career continued into his 90s. In September 2019, “Why?”, a play written and staged by Mr. Brook and his longtime collaborator, Marie-Hélène Estienne, opened in Brooklyn after a debut in Paris, with a planned tour to China, Italy and Spain. And a new book, Playing by Ear: Reflections on Music and Sound, was published the following month. With his piercing blue eyes and quiet authority, Mr Brooke had an undeniable charisma, although he did not like to be described as a guru. He ironically rejected his nickname, the Buddha, since he felt that he was far from spiritual certainty and, indeed, did not believe that certainty was possible. He was influenced by George Gurdjieff, a mystic who believed that nothing should be taken for granted, that everything needed to be questioned, and that cooperation with others was vital. As Mr. Brooke told the Times in 1998, “I’m prepared to deny my opinion, even yesterday, even 10 minutes ago, because all opinions are relevant.” Emma Bubola contributed reporting.
