從馬拉 / 薩德到哈姆雷特： 劇場大師布魯克巡禮

1. 從馬拉/薩德到哈姆雷特： 劇場大師布魯克巡禮 段馨君 Hsin-chun Tuan Associate Professor Department of Humanities and Social Sciences National Chiao Tung University

2. Peter Brook • Parents from Russia • Born in England in 1925 • Got his B.A. from Oxford University • Several periods of various theatrical styles • After WWII, during the 20 years, Brook made his name in brilliant, but conventional Shakespeare productions

3. Brook’s Theater Experiences • From the Birmingham Repertory Theatre • To the Royal Shakespeare Company • Was a director of Covent Garden opera and light comedy (such as Ring Around the Moon, Jean Anouilh) • Established his own company and theater at the Bouffes du Nord in Paris • Creation of his unique theatrical style

4. The Mahabharata at the home The Bouffes du Nord

5. Influence of Artaud • The Theatre and Its Double • Search for Myth • Staging Peter Weiss’ Marat/Sade • Jean-Louis Barrault’s `total theatre’ • Grotowski—the “pre-cultural” sources • Barba—the “pre-expressive” principles • Brook– “the Third Culture of Link”

6. A pragmatic director • Directed Bizet’s Carmen • Search for a mythic theatre • Restore drama to its primal `roots’ • Rejects naturalism as a style with the Establishment

7. The Empty Space • Create `the poetic state • A transcendent experience of life’ • Through shock effects, cries, incantation, masks, effigies and ritual costumes • `arouse sensations of heat and cold’ • `all flooding one’s consciousness simultaneously’

8. The Empty Space • Brook’s 4 lectures • “The Deadly Theatre” • “The Holy Theatre” • “The Rough Theatre” • “The Immediate Theatre”

9. Dada and Artaud • `rediscovery of the terror and awesomeness of the original semi-religious theatre’ • Demolish the conventional dramatic values • Particularly `the Stanislavski ethic’ • Return to the roots of physical expression

10. Body Language • `beyond psychological implication • Beyond monkey-see-monkey-do facsimiles of social behaviourism’ • Avant garde primitivism • E.g. Spurt of Blood • Stylized simplicity and the exploration of basic theatre language • Dialogue: extreme rapidity and variations of pitch • Mixture of symbolic gesture and naturalism

11. The Screens • The Frenzy of the acting • Animalistic vocal effects • Masks and ritualized rhythms • Powerfully Artaudian • Classics of violence • Büchner’s Wozzeck • Strindberg’s A Dream Play

12. Myth and Ritual • Brook’s search • Productions • A Midsummer Night’s Dream • The Tempest —the anarchic and primitive side of human nature • King Lear—Beckettian and the world `facades and emblems’ • Oedipus

13. Brook’s productions • Orghast-- `plastic’ sound • The Conference of the Birds • The Ik—theatrical minimalism • The Mahabharata • Return to theatre of myth • Authentic Balinese masks and puppets

14. Part I of Orghast in Performance • Performed in front of the tomb of Artaxerxes II • `Prometheus’ was bound to the tomb face on a ledge near the top • Worries that reciting speeches from Aeschylus’ The Persians might arouse nationalistic anger • Experiments on the improvisation of musical form: sound

15. Some of Brook’s Productions: The Ik, Ubu, The Cherry Orchard

16. The Mahabharata • Style of Oriental shadow theatre • Non-western mythology • between performance and ceremony • Two Kauravas (from the original 100) • Five Pandavas • 22 actors and 6 musicians • International acting troupe

17. Keep certain Kathakali-like elements • Economy of visual effect and gesture • Symbolic simplicity • The scale and extravagance of the huge story • Includes supernatural beings

18. Human Level • Brought myth down to the human level • E.g. Krishna, the god • The elephant-headed god Ganesha • Men and gods are interchangeable • Divinity is within each of us • `The poetical history of mankind’

19. The audience • This body literally represents the audience to listen to the story. • `If you listen carefully, at the end you’ll be someone else.’ • `I have the same blood. I come from the gods.’

20. The Mahabharata • `The age of Destruction’ • Forecast of the disasters • Caused by western commercialism • In The Mahabharata “mankind has to destroy itself in order for the characters to reach Paradise”(146).

21. The Mahabharata • Global destruction • At the price of liberating the spirit • Prepared for The Mahabharata for 10 years before it put on the stage • The poet’s control over his characters

22. Significance of The Mahabharata • Krishna murmurs in Arjuna’s ear • The spiritual alternative turns out to be Indefinable • A valid test case for a `theatre of myth’ • Explore the basis of theatrical communication • Spectacles: fire • Less is more • Photo: Scene of The Exile

23. Theatrical Styles • Non-verbal `poetry of the theatre’ • Analogous to Barrault’s ideal of `total theatre’ • 1950s staging American plays like Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge (notorious for including a homosexual kiss) • Or Tennessee Williams’ incestually provocative Cat on a Hot Tin Roof • Influenced by Artaud’s `Theatre of the Cruelty’

24. Antonin Artaud and The Theatre of Cruelty • Rediscover the primitive ritual function of theatre • Balinese dance-drama impressed Artaud • The instinctive survival of magic • Reject logic and reason • Develop a ritual language • Rediscover universal physical signs, or `hieroglyphs’ • Verbal expression became incantation • The thematic inversion of good and evil

25. Antonin Artaud • Primitivism – Ritual – Cruelty – Spectacle • Artaud in many ways our alter ego • He mirrors the disillusion of the 1960s/1970s with conventional forms of society & religion • Pioneer the experiments with hallucinatory drugs • Associated with fashionable existential uncertainties • Hailed as the father of modern avant garde theater • Artaud’s work in fact created new forms of expression

26. The Theatre and Its Double • If the (traditional) theatre is the double of life, life is the double of the true theatre. (62) • Material existence is seen as an imperfect copy of what art – as a higher form of reality – symbolically expresses. (62) • Theatrical reality is different in kind from ordinary reality • As with the expressionists or surrealists, this reaction against naturalism implies a rejection of the philosophical assumptions of western civilization (65) • The therapeutic aim of liberating the natural man– instinctive, subconscious, cruel – from perverting social repressions (94)

27. Peter Brook:Searching for Myth • He searches for a universal theatre language • Brook became a convert to the avant garde at a relatively late point in his career • E.g. The Conference of Birds

28. Peter Brook’s Marat/Sade

29. Marat/Sade • 1964 cooperated with Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) • Brook in the prologue of the book Marat/Sade indicates: • 布萊希特式(Brechtian) 的美感距離 (aesthetic distance) 的運用常被視為是與亞陶所認為的劇場是直接、暴力的主觀經驗的觀點相抵觸，我從不認為這是對的。 • Weiss: illusion and disappearance co-exist • 劇中設計，觀眾如被冰水弄清醒 • 不全是布萊希特也不是莎士比亞，但卻非常具有伊莉莎白時期的味道，也像我們所處的時代

30. Marat/Sade • Reinterprets Weiss’s play • Employs both Brecht’s “epic theater” & “Alienation effect” and Artaud’s “Theatre of Cruelty” • Establish the contemporary lives and theatrical atmosphere • Achieve the effects of the “total theatre” • Like the Holy theater—therapeutic effects • Performance– techniques of body, sound, voice, cry, scream, etc. • Express the characters’ physical and mental pain • Strong sound, images, and dramatic situations to convey the breathless tension

31. Stage Design and Visual Effects in Marat/Sade • Make every inch of the stage space • Visual effects, such as the traps underneath the floor • Symbolize (1) bathtub (2) container for killed heads • 3 paints: hint of blood colors—the nobles bleed blue blood, the people bleed read blood, and the pale revolutionary hero Marat bleed white blood

32. Alienation Effect in Marat/Sade • Brook: Marat/Sade does not exist before Brecht，Peter Weiss used many layers of “The Alienation Effect” ；the event of the French Revolution cannot be taken seriously because in this play they are played by the mad persons. • Besides, due to their director is Sade, their actions are also problematic

33. Audience and Performers in Marat/Sade • Audience’s applause– readjust our own status • Brook requires his actors do extreme and even over performance • 2 performers expressed their pain when they play the roles of Marat and Charlotte Corday

34. The Tragedy of Hamlet • Performance style: • Like Jerzy Grotowski’s the “Poor Theater” • Simple stage design--Minimalism • cushions and Persian carpet at the Bouffes du Nord • Historical site • Focus on the performers’ acting

35. The Tragedy of Hamlet • Qui Est La?– Who Is There? • The very first line of Hamlet • Developed from these fragments to a condensed version of Hamlet • Main actor: Adrian Lester • Lester also played the part of Rosalind in As You Like It—versatile, marvelous

36. Combination of Theater Theories • According to Carol Rocamora, Brook explored how the play might have been approached by a number of noted theater theorist • Including Stanislavsky, Brecht, Meierhold, Artaud and Gordon Craig • Not only deconstruction but also reconfiguration • “Who’s there?” articulated again by Horatio as the corpses strewn across the stage slowly rise to their way through • It happens magically, just as Brook intends.

37. The essentially empty stage • Only a floor covering • With a few brightly colored cushions and a table or two • Designed by Chloe Obolensky • An exposed, crumbling theater wall • A familiar instrument stand • Toshi Tsuchitori stands off to the side, a range of primitive instruments at his fingertips • No props, except a pair of skulls and a bamboo pole • Bare, spare, elemental • A pure, clear, crystalline new chamber play

38. Performers in Hamlet • “Pared it down for clarity’s sake” • Says Myers, who doubles deftly as Polonius and the gravedigger • Hamlet, portrayed by the charismatic young British actor Adrian Lester • Dressed in black pull-ons and tunic • The lithe, dreadlocked Lester is a supple Hamlet • Dazzling in his range from philosophical to physical, from petulant to powerful, from witty to weepy to warrior-like • Lester’s is the rare Hamlet who is, above all, in control. Of himself and of the play.

39. Brook’s Transnational Troupe • Brook’s celebrated company of English, Caribbean, Indian and Asian actors • Underscores the universality of his idea of “the third culture of Link” • Jeffrey Kissoon, who doubles as a stately Claudius and Ghost • Natasha Parry as a dignified Gertrude • Shantala Shivalingappa as a delicate Ophelia • With its multinational cast, its minimal mise en scène and text • Metatheatrical stylistics—The Ritual of Hamlet

40. King Lear • Metaphor: 「戲的星河」 • The cruel humanity and the vanity of life • Represents, after the twice world wars, the tired European souls • Choose to interpret by the way of Becket • Theater of Absurd • In tour performances, they get emotional feedbacks and deep understanding in Europe • bleak black & white visuals as well as the sometimes nonsensical editing cues (those random zooms and fades to black)

41. King Lear • Influenced by Jan Kott’s criticism “King Lear or Endgame” in Shakespeare Our Contemporary • Void, vanity, cruelty, irrationality, absurd humanity • corruption of the present value and the order • Destruction of the world • Mechanical stuffs replace God

42. Stage Design in King Lear • Simple and bare stage • Daggling with a big piece of metal board • When the tempest blows, it vibrates the shirking sound • As if the unstable world of King Lear

43. Characters in King Lear • In the interpretation of the characters • Unlike the traditional interpretation—Lear in the center • Regard every role as an isolate and unique life • Emphasize and distinguish their different characteristics

44. Brechtian Style in King Lear • Bertolt Brecht, a famous theater playwright • Invent his theater theory— the “Epic Theater” • Cold and objective • Not be too sentimental toward the mid-ending • Still have a hope • Tours to Paris, Europe, Russia and America • In particular, East Europe and Russia have much responses to the theme of pain in this production

45. Conclusion • Peter Brookuses Artaud’s “Theater of Cruelty” in directing Marat/Sade to explore body and sound • Marat/Sade and King Lear employ Brecht’s “the alienation effect” • Brook uses Brecht’s ideas—make audience think and do action • Brook’s Carmen—Myth Theater: simplistic, fate • The Mahabharata—Brook adapts this Indian epic to do his intercultural performance • Hamlet—Brook adopts Grotowski’s “the Poor Theater” to get rid of everything redundant and focus on the actors • Brook has made his name in theater history

46. Works Cited • Books and Journal Articles: • Aronson, Arnold. “Brook.” American Avant-garde Theatre: A History.London and New York: Routledge, 2000. • Brockett, Oscar. The Essential Theatre. 6th Edition. Texas: Harcourt Brace, 1996. • Brockett, Oscar. & Robert J. Ball. The Essential Theatre. 8th Edition. USA: Wadsworth/Thomson, 2004. • Counsell, Colin. “Peter Brook and Ritual Theater.” Signs of Performance. London and New York: Routledge: 1996. • Croyden, Margaret. “A Certain: An Exclusive Conversation with Peter Brook.” American Theatre. May/June 2001. Vol. 18. Issue 5. • Friedman, Sonya. Trans. Georges Bizet’s Carmen. Original French by H. Meilhac and L. Halevy. New Jersey: Park Lane Press, 1996. • Hamlet-Metz, Manio. “In Review: Festival Round-up.” Opera News. Nov. 95. Vol. 60. Issue 5. • Inns, Christopher. “Myth and Theatre Laboratories: Peter Brook.” Avant Garde Theatre. London and New York: Routledge: 1993. • O’ Quinn, Jim. “Editor’s Note.” American Theatre. May/June 2001. Vol. 18 Issue 5. • Parker, Brian. “Ran and the Tragedy of History.” University of Toronto Quarterly. Vol. 55. Num. 4.Summer 1986. • Rocamora, Carol. “A Prince Among Men.” Nation. Vol. 272. Issue 7. • Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. The Riverside Shakespeare. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974. • Sontag, Susan. Against Interpretation and Other Essays. New York: Picador, 1966. • Todd, Andrew and Lecat, Jean-Guy. The Open Circle: Peter Brook’s Theatre Environments. New York:Palgrave,2003. • “Toward a Theatre of Myth: Brook’s Theatre Environment The Mahabharata” • Wolf, Matt. “Year of the Hamlets.” American Theatre. May/June 2001. Vol. 18 Issue 5. • 王婉容. 布魯克. 台北：生智，2000. • 朱靜美. 意象劇場：非常亞陶，台北：揚智， 1999. • 曹小容. 實驗劇場. 台北：揚智，1998. • 彭鏡禧. 哈姆雷.台北：聯經，2001. • Multimedia Materials: • Film:Peter Brook’s Marat/Sade • Film:PeterBrook’s La Tragédie de Carmen • Film PeterBrook’s The Mahabharata • Film: PeterBrook’s Hamlet • Film: PeterBrook’s King Lear • Online Resources: • http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3DPeter%2BBrook%2527s%2BKing%2BLear%26sm%3DYahoo%2521%2BSearch%26fr%3DFP-tab-img-t%26toggle%3D1%26cop%3D%26ei%3DUTF-8&w=102&h=154&imgurl=www.bardolatry.com%2Fkingle7.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bardolatry.com%2Fkinglear.htm&size=5.6kB&name=kingle7.jpg&p=Peter+Brook%27s+King+Lear&type=jpeg&no=2&tt=12&ei=UTF-8 • Photos from some of the above books and the website

47. Thanks Thanks for your listening.