Peter Brook

[poliphilo]

Peter Brook has a new book out. He's 92 and still active in the theatre. He directed his first professional production in 1943- which adds up to a career of 74 years and counting....

When I was in theological college his classic text- The Empty Space- was on our reading list. It was hoped we'd learn from it how to liven up  church services . It may not have saved the Church of England  but it's a tremendous book- not only a brilliant exposition of theatre and what the point of it is but also, by extrapolation, a manual for living the good life. 

I think of him as one of the wisest people on the planet.

Comments

[sovay]

Peter Brook has a new book out. He's 92 and still active in the theatre.

I saw a filmed version of his Mahabharata a number of years ago. It was five hours instead of nine (like the script which I had bought years previously in a used book store in Florida) and I wasn't sure how I would feel about its handling of the gods, but I loved it. I remember it starting with the poet Vyasa telling his story to a young child, the audience; neither of them can write, so their scribe is Ganesha. His elephant's head was a mask of ivory-colored wood. He is a god and a well-loved one, but he is also familiar enough to be comic, sarcastic at the poet's expense; then he begins to speak to the listening child of all the creatures that make up the living world and without ever refining its accent or changing its quiet timbre, his voice becomes the voice of a magician. Last of all comes "the long glittering chain of gods, who live like all beings in the shadow of death," Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu, and then a name that the child recognizes: Krishna. He can be anything, the god claims, light and fire and leaves and the invisible trembling of the air, he can be anyone. Greatly daring, the child interrupts, "He's you as well?" And Ganesha takes off his head and lays it down gently in its wreaths of red flowers, like an altar, and he is no different all this time he's been talking of himself like a stranger except that he's a trickster, a deep-eyed man with his hair bound back and the kind of face that might be smiling or merely watching for the next turn of the wheel: "Naturally." He takes his cowherd's flute, he reclines as light blazes around him, and he is Krishna among the Pandava as the epic begins, their trusted counselor and friend. The piece could do pretty much anything after that as far as I was concerned.

[poliphilo]

That sounds wonderful.

I have seen very little of Brook's work. In fact- let's be specific- I think the only thing I've seen of his is the film of Lord of the Flies- which is extraordinary. I know him by reputation and from his writings.

[sovay]

That sounds wonderful.

I was shown it about ten years ago by a friend who had the production on tape; with any luck that means it's now available on DVD or some other form of home media. I can only imagine what it would have been like onstage.

I think the only thing I've seen of his is the film of Lord of the Flies- which is extraordinary.

I have not seen that! I should.

I am not sure I have read anything of his, either, beyond his foreword to the Mahabharata. Where do you recommend starting?

[poliphilo]

Well, he has a new book out, but the classic text (and it is a classic) is The Empty Space.