A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Marat/Sade. The Mahabharata.
The 92-year-old, British-born, Paris-based theater director Peter Brook didn’t write any of those works, but his stagings of them are often talked about as defining moments in 20th century theater.
The Mahabharata was a nine-hour event, not including the rest breaks. It brought to life an ancient Sanskrit epic poem with nearly two dozen performers from 16 different countries. Once it opened at 1985 in a quarry outside Avignon, France, avant garde theater buffs across the world made it a point to experience it.
Brook’s latest creation is Battlefield, a 70-minute return to one part of The Mahabharata, currently showing at the American Conservatory Theater‘s Geary Stage in San Francisco.
KQED News host Brian Watt interviewed Brook. Listen to the extended audio segment, here:
