Peter Stephen Paul Brook
Also known as: Peter BrookPeter Brook, in full Peter Stephen Paul Brook (born March 21, 1925, London, England), is an English producer and director. He founded the theatre Le Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris in 1971.
Peter Brook directed his first Shakespeare play, King John, in 1945 for the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. He also introduced to England the avant-garde plays of Jean Cocteau (The Infernal Machine, performed 1945) and of Jean-Paul Sartre (Vicious Circle [No Exit], performed 1946; The Respectful Prostitute and Men Without Shadows, both performed 1947).
Peter Brook is the father of actress and director Irina Brook.
Information
(Objekt ID 17919)| Object type | Person |
| Also known as | Peter Brook |
| Born | March 21, 1925 |
| Functions | Director, Dramatist/Playwright |
| Gender | Male |
| Website | Peter Brook > News |
Peter Brook has directed numerous Shakespeare plays in Stratford-upon-Avon, for what in 1961 became the Royal Shakespeare Company. These plays include Love's Labour's Lost (1946), Romeo and Juliet (1947), Measure for Measure (1950), Titus Andronicus (1955), The Tempest (1957), King Lear (1962), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1970) and Antony and Cleopatra (1978).
For Le Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord his productions include Timon of Athens (1974), The Ik (1975), Ubu at the Bouffes (1977), The Conference of the birds (1979), The Bone (1979), The Cherry Orchard (1989), The Mahabharata (1985), Woza Albert! (1989), The Tempest (1990), The Man Who (1993), Who is there (1995), Happy Days (1995), Je suis un Phénomène (1998), The Suit (1999), The Tragedy of Hamlet (2000), Far Away (2002), The Death of Krishna (2002), Your hand in mine (2003), Tierno Bokar (2004), The Grand Inquisitor (2005), Sizwe Banzi is dead (2006), Fragments - five short texts by Samuel Beckett (2007) and Warum Warum, a theatrical study on Antonin Artaud, Gordon Craig, Charles Dullin, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Zeami Motokiyo and William Shakespeare (2008). More recently, Peter Brook has adapted a selection of Shakespeare's sonnets under the name of Love is my sin (2009).
For other theatres and film the productions Peter Brook has directed include The Winter's Tale (1951), Hamlet (1955), Moderato Cantabile (1959), The Lord of the Flies (1963), Marat/Sade (1967), Le Roi Lear (1969), Meetings with Remarkable Men (1976) and The Mahabharata (1989).
He has directed several operas: La Bohème (1948), Boris Godounov (1948), The Olympiade (1949), Salome (1949) and The Marriage of Figaro (1949) at Covent Garden theatre in London, Faust (1953), Eugene Onegin (1957) at the New York Metropolitan, The Tragedy of Carmen (1981) and Impressions of Pelleas (1992) at the Bouffes du Nord and Don Giovanni (1998) at Aix-en-Provence festival.
His most important books are The Empty Space (1968), The Shifting Point (1987), Le Diable c’est l’Ennui (1991), Evoking Shakespeare (1998), Threads of Time (2003), With Grotowski (2009), and The Quality of Mercy (2013).
Peter Brook has won two Tony awards, for the direction of The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade AKA Marat/Sade in 1966 and A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1971. He also was nominated for the direction of the play The Visit in 1959 and the musical Irma La Douce in 1961.
Peter Brook was the first recipient of The International Ibsen Award, given out in 2008.
The jury stated the following, among other things:
"The International Ibsen Award for 2008 is given to Peter Brook for his successful demonstration that all significant theatre has a unique ability to bring people together, that culture is something everyone can appreciate, and that no group or nation can claim ownership of a work of literature, either in the form of words or as performed on stage.
Throughout his career Mr. Brook has explored and extended the boundaries of theatre, and has played a central role in the development of this medium for over half a century. His productions have travelled all over the world and been enjoyed by thousands of audiences; his theatre in Paris, Bouffes du Nord, has attracted thousands more; and further thousands have benefited from his influence through the work of directors and other groups who have been inspired by his ideas as director, teacher and visionary."
The statement can be read in full at the webpage of Ibsen Awards, www.ibsenawards.com, http://www.ibsenawards.com/article.php?cid=2&aid=38&typecat=0
Sources:
The Ibsen Award, www.ibsenawards.com, http://www.ibsenawards.com/article.php?cid=2&aid=38&typecat=0
Le Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, www.bouffesdunord.com, 25.11.2013, http://www.bouffesdunord.com/en/about-us/peter-brook
Encyclopaedia Britannica, www.britannica.com, 25.11.2013, http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/81172/Peter-Brook
| Title | Premiere | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Det multinorske (The Norwegian Theatre) | October 9, 2011 | Performer |
| The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat () | Dramatised by |