Peter Brook, the giant who changed the face of theater forever, dies

• Theater The last great theater legend, Peter Brook, Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts

Peter Brook

, who died on Saturday at the age of 97, was, together with Constantin Stanislavski, the

and to whom we owe the theater as we know it today.

The British-born, blue-eyed ironclad maestro, though

, reinvented the art of the stage by overcoming traditional forms and going back to basics: an actor in front of his audience.

Often compared to Stanislavski (1863-1938), who revolutionized acting,

a kind of bible for the theater world, first published in 1968.

"I can take any empty space and call it a stage. Someone walks through this empty space while someone else watches, and

": these famous opening lines will become a "manifesto" for an alternative and experimental theater .

His best-known work is

, a nine-hour epic on Hindu mythology (1985), adapted for film in 1989.

He created it in France, where he settled in the early 1970s and where he founded the "Centre international de recherche théâtrale", in an Italian-style theater about to be demolished, the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord.

"Free the Imagination"

Born in London on March 21, 1925, this son of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants directed his

.

Although he dreamed of the cinema, he soon opted for the theater.

By the age of 20 he had graduated from Oxford and was already a professional director.

Two years later, productions of him at

Stratford-upon-Avon caused a sensation.

By the age of 30, he was already directing big hits on Broadway.

For the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), he directed many of the Bard's works, which he considered

.

His "Marat/Sade" fascinated London and New York and

.

But by the late 1960s, after 40 stage successes directing the greatest from Laurence Olivier to Orson Welles, Brook claimed to have "exhausted the possibilities of conventional theatre" and

.

For many, his stunning production of

(1970) for the RSC in a white cube-shaped gym was a turning point.

This prompted actress Helen Mirren to abandon her early career in show business to join her fledgling company in Paris, where, from the start, she

from different cultures.

In his constant search for authenticity, he traveled to Africa, Iran and the United States, where

focused on the "deconditioning" of the actor and the relationship with the public.

From his travels

such as "Les Iks" (1975), "La Conférence des oiseaux" (1979) or "Le Mahabharata".

With each new production ("Timón de Atenas" (1974), "Measure for Measure" (1978), "The Cherry Orchard" (1981), "The Tempest" (1990), "The Man Who" (1993) , Hamlet (2000) or "11 and 12" (2009), has developed an

and refined style.

"Keep creative"

In 1997, when he was a UK hit with Samuel Beckett's "Oh, the Beautiful Days," critics hailed him as

. "

After more than 35 years at Les Bouffes du Nord, Peter Brook left the theater's management in 2010, at the age of 85, but continued to direct there.

"All my life, the only thing that has counted, and that's why I work in the theater, is what lives

," he told AFP.

In 2019, she received the

The charismatic director was rocked in 2015 by the death of his wife, actress Natasha Parry.

"You try to bargain with fate by saying, 'Just bring her back for 30 seconds...'

In addition to plays, he directed

, and made a dozen films, including "Moderato Cantabile" (1960) and "Lord of the Flies" (1963), both adapted from novels.

In addition to his faithful collaborator Marie-Hélène Estienne, he leaves behind two children, director Simon Brook and theater director Irina Brook.

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