The Empty Space (Penguin Modern Classics)

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The parts of the book which I enjoyed without reservation were Brook’s brief but marvelous analyses of Shakespeare’s King Lear and Measure for Measure, two plays of which he has made outstandingly the best production of our day.” –Tyrone Guthrie, The Minneapolis Star Bowie-Sell, Daisy (31 October 2017). "Peter Brook Empty Space Awards to end as 2017 winners announced". What's On Stage . Retrieved 7 October 2019. I think I read this chap-book manifesto 25 years ago. I know it was talked about a great deal by teachers of drama who got their degrees/ diplomas in the 1970s. If you enjoyed The Empty Space, you might like John Berger's Ways of Seeing, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.

Peter Brook's parents were immigrant scientists from Russia. A precocious child with a distaste for formal education but a love of learning, Brook performed his own four-hour version of Shakespeare's Hamlet at the age of seven. After spending two years in Switzerland recovering from a glandular infection, Brook became one of the youngest undergraduates at Oxford University. At the same time he directed his first play in London, a production of Marlowe's Dr. Faustus. Brook made his directing debut at the Stratford Theatre at the age of 21, with a production of Love's Labours Lost. The Empty Space is defined by Brook as "[A]ny space in which theatre takes place." "I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged". [3] Empty Space Peter Brook Award edit Sam Walters and Auriol Smith receiving the Empty Space Award for the Orange Tree Theatre in 2006 Sasha Regan, Union Theatre, London November 2008 This is a brilliant book, and should be read by many besides the passionate few to whom it will be required reading.” –W. A. Darlington, The Daily Telegraph (London) Having seen Brook's televised "The Tragedy of Hamlet," and his filmed version of "King Lear," not to mention, the idea of his most recent "Love is My Sin," I take his word for what it is: clear thoughts from one perspective of what the theater could be, how it should be, and what is should not be.

I am most interested in Brook's interpretations of Shakespeare and this book expostulates on the possibilities of what a Shakespearean play could be or how it could be staged, or how it so often, to the chagrin of Brook, falls into the realm of Deadly Theater (gaudy, costumes, overly heightened, etc.) and how to move away from that. Taking Brook on his own terms and then reading Shakespeare will transform your understanding of Shakespeare, at least it did to me. If anyone knows of any other great imaginers of the Bard, please do let me know. Empty Space… Peter Brook Awards – Winners 2010". Westendtheatre.com. 2 November 2010 . Retrieved 25 September 2021.

A brilliant book ... should be read by the many besides the passionate few to whom it will be required reading' It's a book about the current state of theater, written in 1968. As I was born in 1984, the author has literally no knowledge of any performance I have ever seen in my life, nor have I seen any of the performances he describes. So it's hard to relate his opinions about the state of theater to today, not knowing if I agree with his assessment of 1968.Despite his popular successes, Brook sought out alternative ways to create vibrant, meaningful theater. He directed a season of experimental theater with the Royal Shakespeare Company, inspired by Antonin Artaud's "Theatre of Cruelty." He sought to turn away from stars and to create an ensemble of actors who improvised during a long rehearsal period in a search of the meaning of "holy theater." In The Empty Space, groundbreaking director Peter Brook draws on a life in love with the stage to explore the issues facing any theatrical performance. Here he describes important developments in theatre from the last century, as well as smaller scale events, from productions by Stanislavsky to the rise of Method Acting, from Brecht's revolutionary alienation technique to the free form Happenings of the 1960s, and from the different styles of such great Shakespearean actors as John Gielgud and Paul Scofield to a joyous impromptu performance in the burnt-out shell of the Hamburg Opera just after the war. Passionate, unconventional and fascinating, his book shows how theatre defies rules, builds and shatters illusions and creates lasting memories for its audiences. Empty Space… Peter Brook Awards – Winners 2012". Westendtheatre.com. 6 November 2012 . Retrieved 25 September 2021. Since there is no one on the theatrical scene quite like Brook, there is no other book quite like this one. A must for any and every college library." – Choice

The Empty Space is a 1968 book by the British director Peter Brook examining four modes or points of view on theatre: Deadly; Holy; Rough; and Immediate. Giorgetti, Sandra (9 November 2014). "Empty Space... Peter Brook Awards 2014". British Theatre Guide . Retrieved 25 September 2021.Theatergoers who care about the nature and destination of contemporary drama will be drawn to The Empty Space with ravenous interest.” – Time Kustow, Michael (2006). Peter Brook: a biography. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 153. ISBN 0-7475-7913-X. Peter Brook is a world-renowned theater director, staging innovative productions of the works of famous playwrights. A native of London, he has been based in France since the 1970s.

A timeless classic on the art of theatre from the most influential stage director of the twentieth century. Adapted from a series of four lectures, originally delivered as the first of the Granada Northern Lectures Peter Brook's The Empty Space is an exploration of four aspects of theatre, 'Deadly, Holy, Rough and Immediate', published in Penguin Modern Classics. Peter Brook speaks of the theater of the past and the present, of its changes, of its various forms, of what he has seen and sees and of his own work. He speaks with the eloquence, and with the excitement of the explorer finding his way into a vast unknown but, he believes, knowable world… The Empty Space is a brilliantly written, even ecstatic book, full of information of the world’s theater and of this ecstatic book, full of information of the world’s theater and of this leading worker in the theater.” –Herman Shumlin, Chicago Sun-TimesAlthough the boundary between these four isn't always clear, it does seem to me that if you think of them as four overlapping circles*, rather than four squares with a clear division between them, then it does make a deal of sense. And, I think, this is a very interesting perspective to bring to the world of work, and of our lives. Experiences where advertising seeks to create false "deadly" aspirations, moments in nature that are "holy", or when we find flow in a "rough" DIY task, or when our interactions with a child are "immediate".