Peter Brook saw acting as an uncompromising search for truth
The revolutionary theatre director died on July 2nd, aged 97
Not long after the second world war, as he walked through the ruins of Hamburg, Peter Brook saw a crowd of children pushing through the door of a nightclub. He followed them. Inside was a dilapidated stage with a backdrop of blue sky, and in front of it two sad clowns sitting on a cloud. The clowns were on a visit to the Queen of Heaven, and were listing which foods, all scarce in the starving city, to ask her for. As they mentioned various delicious things, the children grew quiet. Then, as he remembered it, the silence became different. They were transfixed. That silence became what he most desired to generate in the theatre.
This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “The mystic of the stage”
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