Theater legend Peter Brook dies at 97

Peter Brook, born in Great Britain, but who spent a large part of his career in France, at the head of his Parisian theater Les Bouffes du Nord, had reinvented the art of staging.

AFP - BERTRAND GUAY

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Briton Peter Brook, theater legend and one of the most influential directors of the 20th century, died on Saturday July 2 at the age of 97, we learned on Sunday from his entourage.

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Peter Brook, who died on Saturday at the age of 97, was with Constantin Stanislavski the most influential director of the 20th century and to whom we owe the theater as we know it today.

The steely blue-eyed master, born in Great Britain, whose nationality he had despite spending much of his career in France, reinvented the art of the stage by going beyond traditional forms and returning fundamentals: an actor in front of his audience.

Often compared to Stanislavski (1863-1938) who revolutionized acting, Peter Brook is the theoretician of “empty space”, a kind of bible for the theater world, first published in 1968.

he writes.

”: these famous first lines will become a “manifesto” for an alternative and experimental theatre.

His best-known play is

, a nine-hour epic from Hindu mythology (1985), adapted for film in 1989. He premiered it in France, where he settled in the early 1970s and where he founded the International Center for Theater Research, in an Italian-style theater about to be demolished, the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord.

It unleashes passions

Born in London on March 21, 1925, this son of Jewish Lithuanian immigrants made his first production at the age of 17.

If he dreams of cinema, he quickly heads for the theater.

At 20, an Oxford graduate, he was already a professional director and, two years later, his productions in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace, unleashed passions.

At 30, he is already directing big hits on Broadway.

For the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), he staged many texts from The

, who for him is “ 

”.

His

 fascinated London and New York and earned him a Tony Award in 1966. But at the end of the 1960s, after forty theatrical successes in which he directed the greatest, from Laurence Olivier to Orson Welles, Brook claimed to have " 

” and entered an experimental period.

For many, his startling production of

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

An increasingly stripped down style

In a constant quest for authenticity, he travels to Africa, Iran or the United States and conducts experimental work there focused on the “ 

 ” of the actor and the relationship with the spectator.

He brings back from his travels anthology shows such as

 (1975),

 (1979) or

.

Throughout the creations, (

(1974),

 (1978),

 (1981),

 (1990),

 (1993),

(2000) or

 ( 2009), he forges an increasingly pure and stripped-down style.

In 1997, when he triumphed in the United Kingdom with

 of Samuel Beckett, critics hailed him as "

 ".

After an adventure of more than 35 years at the Bouffes du Nord, Peter Brook left the management of the theater in 2010, at the age of 85, while continuing to stage productions there.

" 

," he told AFP.

Operas and films

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

"

'Just bring her back for 30 seconds'...".

In addition to plays, he has staged several operas such as

and made a dozen films including

 (1960) and

 (1963), both adapted from novels.

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

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