Peter Brook on the foolishness of directorial concepts

[Bert Coules]

Veteran, much-respected, innovative stage director Peter Brook on the
genesis of his ground-breaking Midsummer Night's Dream and what's wrong with
much stage production today. Highly relevant to many discussions on this
group and well worth a read.

http://tinyurl.com/cajpzah

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2013/apr/15/peter-brook-midsummer-nights-dream

[Mike Scott Rohan]

Yes indeed, and thank you. I remember buying tickets for that Dream, long before it opened, because I couldn't get them for Tristan the same night (Nilsson and Thomas produced Peter Hall, conducted by the late Sir Colin Davis). When I and my college friends turned up at the theatre I could have shifted those tickets for hundreds of pounds; glad I didn't, it was amazing. Tristan well lost, and I'd not sat that lightly. At the end the cast -- who included Frances de la Tour and Ben Kingsley (as Mustardseed!) all rushed through the audience shaking hands -- with the result that we ended up with the Hermia and Titania across our laps, as they fell over. Magic!

But....

While Brook talks a great deal of sense, I can't help remembering that his Salome, back in the early 1950s, set the model for Eurotrash, with its goofy sets by Salvador Dali -- including a long ramp that shot little puffs of steam up Salome's skirt as she twirled down it. And some of his productions since, his minimalist Carmen, for example, have smacked just as much of distortion and wilfulness as more elaborate exaggerations. So in some ways this very sound condemnation of "ideeisme" for its own sake is actually the successful, retired pirate calling for the elimination of piracy. He knows what's right and wrong -- now, when he has no career to build on it. Though to be fair to Brook, he's never take the more commercial road he could have. But I think Hall, on the whole, is a better producer. He turned up a decent Ring (after a superb Tristan); what would Brook's Ring have looked like?

Cheers,

Mike

[Bert Coules]

Mike, thanks for the response. I never saw Brook's Dream and in fact hadn't
realised that it was on at the same time as the Hall Tristan, which I did
see (twice in fact: I slept out on the pavement all night at Covent Garden
to get a sold-on-the-day standing place for the last performance). I've
always assumed that the Dream was a few years earlier, before I really got
interested in the theatre; I'm a bit put out that I could have seen it but
didn't.

Brook's Ring? There's a thought. Early in his career it could have been
stunning; later, as you say, possibly not. I did rather enjoy his cut-down
Carmen, though, even though I only saw it on TV.

Bert

[greg lee]

> http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2013/apr/15/peter-brook-midsummer-nig...

If you want to read about opera directors gone berserk, try reading
the epilog of Rasponi's book THE LAST PRIMA DONNAS.

[greg lee]

Over time, I think I have noticed a pattern when it comes to opera
productions becoming more and more outrageous:

- It all begins with a variation of a traditional production,

- Then a variation of that variation, and then,

- A parody of that v., and then,

- A parody of that p., and then,

- A travesty of that p., and then,

- A travesty of travesties.

And then those avant-garde directors start trashing everything in
sight with a vengeance of vengeances.

And when I see (or am subjected to) those productions(?), I simply
feel like a character out of a Franz Kafka novel--I just DON'T KNOW
what's hitting me!

Oh, Where Are the Simple Joys of Sanity?!

[greg lee]

On Apr 15, 8:16 am, "Bert Coules" <m...@bertcoules.co.uk> wrote:

> http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2013/apr/15/peter-brook-midsummer-nig...

If you can find Corsaro's article on malinscenation, it may be of
interest:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/41567324?q&versionId=54442210