Peter Brook, The groundbreaking British theater director, whose enormous influence reached the entire world, died this Sunday at the age of 97.
Brook redefined the way we think about theater with his productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company of Stratford; in the Bouffes du Nord, the dilapidated Parisian music hall in which he made his base for more than 30 years.
In addition to his great stage work, he brought the art to African villages, where his actors improvised performances, proving that he could shine and influence on both the big and small stages.
Many of his productions were critically acclaimed for their ability to strip the theater of the superfluous and distill the drama to its essentials, presenting the work with clarity and a touch of elegance.
Peter Brook, the theater master Source: El Mundo
Born in London In 1925, Brook came of age as a young and precocious director of the Royal Shakespeare Company during a period when the work of the now-canonical European innovators of XNUMXth-century theatre, were beginning to make their presence felt in Britain.
The total questioning of what theater should be inspired Brook towards methodological and aesthetic innovation, and modeled for him a way of writing. about theater for a popular audience in striking and vivid prose, which would continue throughout his career. For Brook, all that is needed for theater is a venue, an actor, and an audience member. Everything else is complementary.
And throughout his life, he dedicated himself to demonstrating this with a series of intensely focused and shrinking productions.
These included a lean production of King Lear (1962) con Paul scofield and adapted to the cinema in 1971. Then there was the controlled madness of his Marat / Sade (1964) and an iconic production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1970)
From his debut through the 1990s and into the new millennium, Brook was constantly active, continuing creating classical and intercultural shows in the Bouffes du Nord Theater de Paris.
As well as creating productions, he worked with international artists on projects that would tour extensively.
His clarifying approach to what really matters in theater – cutting back on everything from mise-en-scène to performance style and infusing what remains with complexity, nuance and intelligence – can be discerned across the spectrum of contemporary theatrical activity. Thus, Brook raised the bar for what audiences should expect from theater, but also for what creators can demand of their audiences.
He advocated a theater in which a rigorous creative process supported an absolute commitment of the actors with the present moment of the performance. In response, audiences would feel compelled to bring their own investment, attention, and desires.
Brook's work was not without controversy, but he rarely strayed from the center of debates about human interests in the making of theatre. He also worked in film, including a 1963 adaptation of Lord of the Flies, and in opera, directing radically scaled-down productions of Carmen and The Magic Flute.
In this way, and today as we mourn his loss, we recognize that Brook reminded us how high the stakes can be in a staging.
michelle terry, artistic director of shakespeare's globe, was among those who paid tribute to Brook, mentioning:
We have lost a lighthouse. He not only believed in the profound humanity and transformative power of theater and Shakespeare, he put it into action. He was a true and rare practitioner and his legacy must live on in those of us who humbly followed him in his eternal summer.