Helen Mirren and Peter Brook turn a Brooklyn afternoon into pure theatrical alchemy.
In 1970, British stage and film director Peter Brook created the International Centre of Theatre Research in Paris. In the autumn of 1973, the Centre conducted a five week work period at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, performing and giving demonstrations of exercises, in which members of the audience participated, and exchanged ideas with the New York theatre community. This is a film of one day's work.
Acting
Young Helen Mirren radiating raw, exploratory genius.
Direction
Peter Brook's gentle, relentless pursuit of 'the empty space.'
Director
Gerald Feil
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This captures a pivotal moment when Brook's international troupe—Malian, British, American, French—was literally inventing intercultural performance practice that would dominate experimental theatre for decades.
Gerald Feil shot this in a single day with minimal crew, making it one of the purest documents of Brook's method—no retrospectives, no commentary, just the work itself.
GB
US
