Threads of Time

Recollections

Browse Return to Previous Page       Related Subjects All Subjects General Interest Highlights Literary NOT Theory Literary Studies

by Peter Brook

Counterpoint

Due/Published April 1999, 224 pages, paper

ISBN 1582430187

Brook has given us his long-awaited memoir in which he reflects on his artistic fortunes, his idols and teachers, his philosophical path and personal journey. Born in London in 1925, he directed his first play at eighteen and became the enfant terrible of British theater by twenty-one. From Covent Garden he went on to direct Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon and new plays in London's West End. His first love was for the cinema, and with his reputation established, he began to make films alongside his work in theater. In both theater and film, he worked with some of the greatest names of the day: Paul Scofield, Jean Genet, Laurence Olivier, Jeanne Moreau, John Gielgud, Salvador Dalí and many others.

Here we see the young Brook-during his first production-peeking in on John Gielgud in a neighboring theater to see where the director is supposed to stand. We see a fiery young director become instantly compassionate when he learns that a young lighting assistant is missing his cues because he is transfixed by the music, and we watch as Brook learns that the most important job of the director is to help an actor find the source of a character within himself.

In this autobiography, the man The New York Times has called "the English-speaking world's most eminent director" and The London Times has named "theater's living legend" reveals the many sources behind his lifelong passion to find the most expressive way of telling a story.