Peter Brook, 1925-2022
July 5, 2022 9:00 PM Subscribe
Lord of the Flies (1963) - Director Peter Brook Interview
posted by philip-random at 11:16 PM on July 5, 2022
posted by philip-random at 11:16 PM on July 5, 2022
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He was great beyond great, "radical majesty" is a good way of putting it. I've seen two of his productions, the Mahabharata and The Tempest Project. I wish I could have seen more. The Mahabharata took a whole day, you were advised to bring food and pillows, because the benches were hard in the space it was played. But still you just wished it could continue another day, and another. I still have dreams about both that and The Tempest Project.
Thanks for linking to King Lear. It was filmed near our farm, and my grandmother let out our stables for some of the many horses in the production, and cooked for some of the crew. Family legends ensued, and for decades I wore a "coat" that was made for one of the extras. But I have never seen it, I was too small back then, and later I couldn't find it on video. TBH, I haven't thought about searching YouTube recently.
Anyway, as a result, I read "The Empty Space" at a young and persuadable age, and it has meant the world to me.
posted by mumimor at 11:47 PM on July 5, 2022 [3 favorites]
He was great beyond great, "radical majesty" is a good way of putting it. I've seen two of his productions, the Mahabharata and The Tempest Project. I wish I could have seen more. The Mahabharata took a whole day, you were advised to bring food and pillows, because the benches were hard in the space it was played. But still you just wished it could continue another day, and another. I still have dreams about both that and The Tempest Project.
Thanks for linking to King Lear. It was filmed near our farm, and my grandmother let out our stables for some of the many horses in the production, and cooked for some of the crew. Family legends ensued, and for decades I wore a "coat" that was made for one of the extras. But I have never seen it, I was too small back then, and later I couldn't find it on video. TBH, I haven't thought about searching YouTube recently.
Anyway, as a result, I read "The Empty Space" at a young and persuadable age, and it has meant the world to me.
posted by mumimor at 11:47 PM on July 5, 2022 [3 favorites]
Wait, I also saw Carmen. That was gorgeous, too, and ruined all other Carmens for me, but the theatre works were more world changing.
posted by mumimor at 11:53 PM on July 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by mumimor at 11:53 PM on July 5, 2022 [1 favorite]
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crossed paths with his world/works in my teenage years in Paris, so the impact it had was nearly always inarticulate (on my part), but somehow primal and profound. only now it strikes me that there’s a decolonial streak to so many of the themes that ran through his research/productions. I wonder how/whether his companies will outlive him…
posted by progosk at 12:28 AM on July 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
crossed paths with his world/works in my teenage years in Paris, so the impact it had was nearly always inarticulate (on my part), but somehow primal and profound. only now it strikes me that there’s a decolonial streak to so many of the themes that ran through his research/productions. I wonder how/whether his companies will outlive him…
posted by progosk at 12:28 AM on July 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
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posted by shiny blue object at 7:30 AM on July 6, 2022
posted by shiny blue object at 7:30 AM on July 6, 2022
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The Empty Space was enormously impactful for me. He was a giant.
posted by MythMaker at 8:26 AM on July 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
The Empty Space was enormously impactful for me. He was a giant.
posted by MythMaker at 8:26 AM on July 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
He was legendary in my grad school experience.
His Marat/Sade and Lear are superb films.
posted by doctornemo at 8:35 AM on July 6, 2022
His Marat/Sade and Lear are superb films.
posted by doctornemo at 8:35 AM on July 6, 2022
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posted by Joey Michaels at 9:55 AM on July 6, 2022
posted by Joey Michaels at 9:55 AM on July 6, 2022
I myself saw Lear in a "Shakespeare: Script to Screen" class in college and it was just such a different entity than all the other films we watched. The material inaccessibility of the performance was part of its weird energy. There are murmurs on Youtube about a 4K restoration but I couldn't find anything solid in a quick look.
posted by praemunire at 10:53 AM on July 6, 2022
posted by praemunire at 10:53 AM on July 6, 2022
The Channel 4 version of The Mahabharata appears to be on YouTube (I say appears, because there's over five hours of it and I only checked a bit).
And Meetings With Remarkable Men.
posted by Grangousier at 11:00 AM on July 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
And Meetings With Remarkable Men.
posted by Grangousier at 11:00 AM on July 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
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Peter Brook was one of those artists who made the theatre into a temple of story. I read his books as a kid pursuing my dreams in the performing arts and it's hard to overstate the effect his ideas had on me. The Empty Space, in particular, is a meditation on ritualized performance that I recommend to everyone. There wasn't a thing he did that didn't tie into something deep and essential in human culture. That was his whole bag. The word Luminary gets thrown around a lot in moments like this but that's what he truly was. I am tremendously grateful for him.
posted by Leeway at 10:06 PM on July 5, 2022 [3 favorites]