Conversations with Peter Brook: 1970-2000

Peter Brook is one of the giants of twentieth-century theater, having started as a stage director at the age of twenty before being named the primary director at the Covent Garden opera house and, eventually, becoming the unique creative genius who virtually reinvented the way actors and directors think about theater, through his groundbreaking productions of King Lear, Marat/Sade, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and, especially, The Mahabharata. Since the creation in the 1970s of his International Center for Theater Research in Paris, he has sought to focus on teaching and researching as well as directing—always looking for new ways to illuminate the truth of a text so that actors and audiences alike are challenged to question both the performance of the piece and the larger truth surrounding it.

Margaret Croyden has followed Peter Brook’s career from 1970 up to the present. As a result, her perspective on the evolution of his work is unparalleled, and she brings to the interview process the acuity of a critic and the knowledgeability of a devoted observer. As she says in her introduction, “The most important aspect of Brook’s character and his artistry is that he is a searcher . . . a questioner, a teacher.” In this book, Brook—with Croyden’s able assistance—shares some of his most insightful thoughts and deepest feelings about the theater and the world.