Peter Brook

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Folger Shakespeare Library

Arts

4.7 • 837 Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2019

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, we spend 40 minutes with one of the world’s most influential directors. Peter Brook has directed John Gielgud, Glenda Jackson, Ben Kingsley, Adrian Lester, Laurence Olivier, Paul Scofield, and Patrick Stewart. His 1970 "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" is that among the play’s most lauded and best known productions. His 1968 book "The Empty Space," now an e-book from Nick Hern Books, is a classic of theater writing. Brook’s work is characterized by the search for new theatrical modes and artistic languages, and at 94, he continues searching. His newest work, "Why?", co-written and co-directed by longtime collaborator Marie-Hélène Estienne, opened in Paris in June, finished a run at Brooklyn’s Theatre for a New Audience in October, and will soon begin a tour of China, Italy, and Spain. A new book, "Playing by Ear: Reflections on Sound and Music," is also being published this year. Barbara Bogaev interviews the director about his remarkable career, his illustrious collaborators, and the big question: what makes good theater? From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published December 10, 2019. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “My Age is as a Lusty Winter,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. With technical helped from Andrew Feliciano at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California, and Alan Leer at The Sound Company Studios in London.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Every once in a while, you get a chance to talk to a living legend. For people who love Shakespeare, one of those conversations is coming up.
0:14.0	From the Folger's Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited.
0:21.6	I'm Michael Whitmore, the Folgers director.
0:24.5	In the world of mid-20th century, Shakespeare performance, it is hard to think of anyone
0:29.6	as influential as Peter Brook. He started at the Royal Shakespeare Company with a production
0:35.1	of Love's Labor's Lost in 1946.
0:38.3	And for much of the next 70 years, his thinking and his productions have changed the way English-speaking directors in the West approach and stage Shakespeare.
0:48.3	He directed John Gilgood in Measure for Measure in 1950, the Winters Tale in 1952, and The Tempest in 1957,
0:57.0	Lawrence Olivier in Titus Andronicus in 1958, and Paul Schofield in King Lear in 1962.
1:06.0	And he's perhaps best known for his production of a Midsummer Night's Dream in 1970 with John
1:12.0	Kane, Francis de Latour, Ben Kingsley, and Patrick Stewart.
1:17.6	That production not only changed Shakespeare, but if you went to the theater in the 1970s,
1:23.1	you saw its impact outside the Shakespeare World too.
1:27.1	Shows like Pippin, Candide, Godspell, and others all drew from Brooks' revolutionary staging and
1:34.3	design.
1:35.3	Now that he's 94 years old, you might think Peter Brook would slow down.
1:40.3	You would be wrong.
1:42.3	He wrote and directed the play Battlefield, which premiered at the Young Vic in 2015, and he's
1:48.6	written two new books, Tip of the Tongue in 2017, and his latest, Playing by Ear, Reflections
1:55.8	on Sound and Music.
1:57.9	We are thrilled to bring you our interview with him now in a podcast that we call My Age is a Lusty Winter.
2:04.6	Peter Brook is interviewed by Barbara Bogave.
	...

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