Peter brook essay

In this form, the word “cruelty” did not necessarily mean violence or torture or some other aspect that is often associated with it; to Artaud the word “cruelty” was used as a “cosmic rigor or implacable necessity imposing itself on the bodies of the actors” (Kramer, 2). Peter Brook put into action the ideas of Artaud.

Peter Brooks has written several books on narrative and the novel, including Reading for the Plot. A new book, Balzac’s Lives, will be published next fall. He is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at Yale.\u2029

Brook's belief was simpler: his “goal was to reinvigorate the theater through a theatrical vocabulary not tied to language”(Aronson, 1). Rhetoric would no longer serve as the main device for communication. Brook used all aspects of theatre to stage this: lighting, set, props, costumes, and most importantly, action.

He changed, and not without controversy, the effect that the theatre can produce. In his own words, he attempted to “divide the eternal truths from the superficial variations” (Brook, 16): The “eternal truths” being the “invisible”–the inherent emotions in any human–and the “superficial variations” being the way in which to present those truths.