Peter Brook

Peter Brook is without doubt one of the most acclaimed theater directors of our time, part of a generation of artists, including Ariane Mnouchkine, Giorgio Strehler, Bob Wilson, Peter Stein, and Tadeusz Kantor, who have been key to the development of the contemporary theater scene. Brook began his career by working with prestigious companies such as the Royal Opera House and the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1970 Brook founded his own company, the International Center for Theatre Research, in Paris, employing actors from Europe, Asia, and Africa. Brook has staged versions of plays by Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Jarry, Chéjov, Genet, Beckett and Miller, and directed operas by Debussy, Bizet, Puccini, and Tchaikovsky. His most famous productions have been Marat-Sade by Peter Weiss and The Mahabharata, a version of the Indian epic poem that Brook made with Jean-Claude Carrière. Brook has also written important essays on theater practice, such as The Empty Space. Some of his films are Moderato cantabile, Meetings with Remarkable Men, and Lord of the Flies.


Photo: Colm Hogan