This is Peter Brook
Saner than Artaud
More humble than Brecht
More readable than Stan
...and more alive than all three put together
Here are some places to go...
The first is an excellent record of Brook's groundbreaking production of A Midsummer Night's Dream
http://www.touchstone.bham.ac.uk/exhibition/MND/home.html
The second and third are good extracts of his work. Read some and see how much sense he makes.
http://www.so-rimlee.com/literature-supernova/2011/4/29/peter-brook-on-deadly-theatre-in-the-empty-space.html
http://owendaly.com/jeff/grotowsm.htm
The last is his seminal book The Empty Space in its entirety in PDFtastic form.
http://preterhuman.net/texts/religion.occult.new_age/occult.conspiracy.and.related/Brook,%20Peter%20-%20The%20Empty%20Space.pdf
Post responses
“The Holy” and “The Deadly” theatre is titles of two theoretical performances in peter’s brook’s “The Empty Space”.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading the extract on the website about Deadly theatre I found it easy to understand some bits but others a bit confusing. The bit that stood out to me the most in this extract was “If good theatre depends on a good audience, then every audience has a theatre it deserves”. I think what Brook was trying to say was that each audience has a specific type of theatre style they love and hate, so this therefore means (well to me anyways) for a good theatre to depend on a good audience you have to find the right type of audience i.e. for a Stanislavski naturalistic piece of theatre there will be an audience that will love that style but for a Brecht epic theatre styled piece there will be different type of audience that love that style (hope that made any sense :/)
When reading the extract on the website about Holy theatre I found this confusing to understand but on some parts I understood it. The bit that stood out to me the most in this extract was “Is there another language, just as exacting for the author, as a language of words? Is there a language of actions, a language of sounds—a language of word-as-part-of movement, of word-as-lie, word-as-parody, of word-as-rubbish, of word-as-contradiction, of word-shock or word-cry? If we talk of the more-than-literal, if poetry means that which crams more and penetrates deeper—is this where it lies?” Which to me means that is there a certain language that has to be preform on stage or is it just the question people asked them to understand what holy theatre was.
Reading through some of the book of peter brook I found some part really really interesting and then some just confused the hell out of me (it don’t take much).
When I look on the online exhibition of Peter Brook’s version of midsummer night dream made me more interested in the theories behind Peter Brook because with looking at how he did certain parts of midsummer night dream as I want to know why he used certain techniques and what was the reasons for using them and also what were the reasons behind the choices of his set design.
'the empty space' i think it has been written in an easy way for everyone to understand and i also think the point he is trying to make is very clear. after reading this what i can understand from this is that of theatre is meant to be i think he is trying to say that theatre has lost it identity and has become more like a cinema and he is not happy about that, i think the main message he gives to the readers is how different theatre is now and who we must do to change it and how to full fill the purpose of theatre!!
ReplyDeletewhen i was researching about peter brook i found out very good information from the guardian news about his life and one of the main influences for him Antonin artaud!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/gallery/2008/dec/17/in-pictures-peter-brook-life-theatre#/?picture=340817366&index=12
LIAM SAYS: (POSTING FOR HIM)
ReplyDeletePeter Brook
What seems like another fun dude.
I particularly enjoyed the photographs concerning the production of A midsummers nights dream, he took people's expectations and flipped them upside-down (not the people) It made me think that wheres the fun in repeating the same show. Of course there is the art value, but shaking it up; evolving its different, fresh, fun.
I also had to comment on this quote
"The theatre has often been called a whore, meaning its art is impure, but today this is true in another sense - whores take money and then go short on the pleasure."
Any one who comes out with sentences like that has to be okay in my book.
Once again thank you Jessie G
Much like the work of Artaud, it's very difficult to approach Peter Brook without taking into account his critical view of "contemporary" theatre, both of who seem, in my opinion, to be launching a campaign against realism. Peter Brook, in his discourse "The Empty Space", presents the reader with the concept of "The Deadly Theatre", reading through said article implies that this form of theatre is the mainstream or commercially perused stage.
ReplyDelete"[The scholar] In his heart he sincerely wants a theatre that is nobler-than-life and he confuses a sort of intellectual satisfaction with the true experience for which he craves. Unfortunately, he lends the weight of his authority to dullness and so the Deadly Theatre goes on its way."
This quote in particular makes me believe that "The Deadly Theatre" is something pretentious; something built on the pretense of, as was mentioned, "Culture". In the effort to capture a performance that displays these romantic principles and the near-elitist "intellectual" aspect, we find ourselves with a "mask" of messages or ideals, being carried by the stage featuring a "Deadly Theatre".
I suppose a quote of Willy Russell's from "Educating Rita" would sum these thoughts up nicely!
"Found a culture, have you Rita? Found a better song to sing? No, you found a different song to sing, and on your lips it's shrill and hollow and tuneless."
What we presume is groundbreaking and avant-garde is corrupted by commercialism and warped by childish interpretations of script, message or execution. What may seem novel is trite, and what might seem exciting is the mundane painted in a bright shade of pink. "The Deadly Theatre" is poison; duplicity that is lauded for its pretense of brilliance.
A Midsummer Night's Dream....
ReplyDeletePeter Brook's interpretation of MND has been revolutionary towards the way in which we perceive cliche productions as he iconicaly changed the way in which MND is presented as he was inspired by a circus using a variety of levels, a simple set and a variety of multi-coloured costumes to represent each character and status using symbols to convey this meessage which was done successfully as no one apart from him tried to venture to experiment and do new, which is something humans conform with as we don't feel comfortable in stepping into the unknown as we don't whether the outcome will be successful or unsucessful as we are scared to fail or fall and in a way Peter Brook tries to show us that stepping out of comfort zones is not that bad, as we have to fall for it to make us stronger.
The Empty Space....
Brook, Peter. The Empty Space (London: Penguin, 1968)
"The theatre has often been called a whore, meaning its art is impure"
this quote amuses because as theatre is referred to as a "whore" whcih may try to to imply that we witness or go through the same scenario's as the characters we observe and we are sold things that we can already have that has just been regurgitated and changed that we fail to realize that we see the same things all the time as we have a distorted perspectives as we go round in circles seeing the same things!! that don't change and we seem not to bother as it, destroys the true meaning of experimenting and going for what you believe in to change the perspectives of audiences and giving them an insight into different cultures, but all these things listed are hindered by one thing such POLITICS because if "they" feel threatened they have the power to stop and control what the audience can witness in order to not reveal the truth or open a new perspective on new experiences and making people open minded!.
He was a great man
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