"Brook is someone prepared to dream, take risks, fail and then try again, succeed and still try again: a genius, and a creative one." Benedict Nightingale, Times Literary SupplementThis unusually candid volume of Brook in dialogue provides an uninhibited encounter with contemporary theatre's most influential director.The result of 12 hours of spontaneous question and answer sessions, Between Two Silences shows Brook responding to points rai...

"First there was the master conjurer adept at musicals, farces, opera and Shakespeare. Then there was the philosopher-king ... who has devoted his energies to a quest for a theatre that was simple in form and rich in meaning." - Michael BillingtonThe theatre's greatest contemporary director tells the story of his life.Peter Brook was the modern stage's greatest inventor. For over 50 years he held audiences spellbound with his critically acclaimed productions. This ...

Peter Brook was the most consistently innovative director in Western theatre. In these three essays he returns to the concept of his first book The Empty Space and examines what that means for the life of a production. How can a company establish its own "empty space" - a rehearsal and performance environment which will encourage the actors to abandon the security of the hackneyed and release their true creativity?The potency of Brook's writing lies in his ability invest ge...

A unique dramatization of India's greatest epic poem, fifteen times longer than the Bible, The Mahabharata has played to enthralled audiences throughout Europe, the Far East and America. Regarded as the culmination of Peter Brook's extraordinary research into the possibilities of theatre, the production has been hailed as the 'theatrical event of this century' (Sunday Times). British audiences encountered The Mahabharata, on stage and television, in the late eighties. Thi...

Hailed as "the theatrical event of this century" (Sunday Times), Peter Brook's unique dramatisation of India's great epic poem, The Mahabharata played to ecstatic audiences worldwide. In The Shifting Point, his first book since The Empty Space, Brook assesses the lessons of his pioneering work from his brilliant debut at Stratford and the West End in the 1960s to the triumphant success of The Mahabharata. With the bravura and insight of a great practitioner and explorer he reveals some of ...

"Peter Brook is not only one of the truly outstanding directors of our time, he is also, undoubtedly, the only one whose skill as a writer equals his genius as a practitioner of the theatre." - Martin EsslinA new work from Peter Brook - the contemporary theatre's greatest inventor.Whatever the social and national barriers, we all have a brain and we think we know it. But, the moment we go inside, we find we are on another planet.Using Oliver Sacks' neurolog...

Hailed as 'the theatrical event of this century' (Sunday Times), Peter Brook's unique dramatization of India's great epic poem, The Mahabharata played to ecstatic audiences worldwide. In The Shifting Point, one of theatre's great visionaries assesses the lessons of his pioneering work from his brilliant debut at Stratford and the West End in the 1960s to the triumphant success of The Mahabharata. With the bravura and insight of a great practitioner and e...

An alternative autobiography of the well-loved actor and man of the theatre, winner of the Sheridan Morley Prize for Theatre Biography.In My Life in Pieces Simon Callow retraces his life through the multifarious performers, writers, productions and events which have left their indelible mark on him.The story begins with Peter Pan – his first ever visit to the theatre – before transporting us to southern Africa and South London, where Callow spent much of h...

Sinister Resonance begins with the premise that sound is a haunting, a ghost, a presence whose location is ambiguous and whose existence is transitory. The intangibility of sound is uncanny – a phenomenal presence in the head, at its point of source and all around. The close listener is like a medium who draws out substance from that which is not entirely there.The history of listening must be constructed from the narratives of myth and fiction, 'silent' arts such as painting, the ...

Now in a second edition, Theatre Studies: The Basics is a fully updated guide to the wonderful world of theatre. The practical and theoretical dimensions of theatre – from acting to audience – are woven together throughout to provide an integrated introduction to the study of drama, theatre and performance. Topics covered include:dramatic genres, from tragedy to political documentarytheories of performancethe history ...

`It is a pleasure to read. Well-written, free of cant, impressively wide-ranging. The book is really an introduction to the avant-garde.' - John Lahr

Peter Brook is one of the most influential directors of our time, whose productions are a byword for imagination, energy and innovation. He was born into a Russian émigré family in London and, after a turbulent time at Oxford University, he veered between directing West End comedy, new work from abroad and opera at Covent Garden. By the 1960s he was moving towards greater experimentation, with controversial works like The Marat/Sade, films like Lord of the Flies,...