Peter Brook

Theatre Director, Opera Director, Film Director, Writer

Born in London in 1925. Throughout his career, he has distinguished himself in various genres: theatre, opera, cinema and writing. He directed his first play in 1943. He then went on to direct over 70 productions in London, Paris and New York. His work with the Royal Shakespeare Company includes “Love’s Labour’s Lost” (1946), “Measure for Measure” (1950), “Titus Andronicus” (1955), “King Lear” (1962), “Marat/Sade” (1964), “US” (1966), “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1970) and “Antony and Cleopatra” (1978).

In 1971, he founded with Micheline Rozan the International Centre for Theatre Research in Paris and in 1974, opened its permanent base in the Bouffes du Nord Theatre.

There he has directed “Timon of Athens”, “The Iks”, “Ubu aux Bouffes”, “The Conference of the Birds”, “L’Os”, “The Cherry Orchard”, “The Mahabharata”, “Woza Albert!”, “The Tempest”, “The Man Who”, “Qui est là”, “Happy Days”, “Je suis un Phénomène”, “Le Costume”, “The Tragedy of Hamlet”, “Far Away”, “La Mort de Krishna”, “Ta Main dans la Mienne”, “The Grand Inquisitor”, “Tierno Bokar”, “Sizwe Banzi is Dead”, “Fragments”, “Warum Warum”, “Love is my Sin”, “11 and 12”, “Une Flûte Enchantée”, and recently “The Suit” (2012) – many of these performed both in French and English.

Peter Brook’s many books include “The Empty Space” (1968), translated into over 15 languages. His films include “Moderato Cantabile” (1959), “Lord of the Flies” (1963), “Marat/Sade” (1967), “King Lear” (1969), “Meetings with Remarkable Men” (1976), “The Mahabharata” (1989) and “The Tragedy Of Hamlet” (2002, TV).

MH Estienne

Director

In 1974, Marie-Hélène Estienne worked with Peter Brook on the casting for “Timon of Athens”, and consequently joined the Centre International de Créations Théâtrales (CICT) for the creation of “Ubu aux Bouffes” in 1977. She was Peter Brook’s assistant on “La tragédie de Carmen”, “The Mahabharata”, and collaborated to the staging of “The Tempest”, “Impressions de Pelléas”, “Woza Albert!” and “La tragédie d’Hamlet” (2000). She worked on the dramaturgy of “Qui est là.” with Peter Brook, and co-authored “L’homme qui” and “Je suis un phénomène” at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord. She wrote the French adaptation of Can Themba’s “The Suit” and “Sizwe Bansi is Dead” by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona. In 2003, she wrote the French and English adaptations of “Le Grand inquisiteur – The Grand Inquisitor”, based on Dostoyevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov”. She was the author of “Tierno Bokar” in 2005, and of the English adaptation of “Eleven and Twelve” by Amadou Hampaté Ba in 2009. With Peter Brook, she co-directed “Fragments”, five short pieces by Beckett, and again with Peter Brook and composer Franck Krawczyk, she freely adapted Mozart and Schikaneder’s “Die Zauberflöte” into “Une Flûte enchantée”, as well as recently “The Suit”.