The British director used the entire globe as his stage, mounting productions ranging from challenging Shakespeare adaptations to international opera and Hindu epic poems.
Brook performed plays in gymnasiums, abandoned factories, quarries, schools, and old gas works all over the world.
His 1970 Stratford production of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” performed entirely in white and with a massive garlanded swing, cemented his place in theatre history.
Brook, who had lived in France since 1974, died on Saturday, according to Le Monde.
On Sunday, his publisher issued a statement confirming his death.
Although Brook was revered in the theatre, he was less well known among the general public due to his refusal to conform to commercial tastes. In 1970, he left Britain to work in Paris.
He frequently avoided traditional theatre structures in favour of “empty space” that could be transformed by light, words, improvisation, and the sheer power of acting and suggestion.
“I can call any empty space a stage,” he wrote in his seminal 1968 book The Empty Space.
His search for inspiration took him to Africa and Iran, where he created a number of original improvised plays distinguished by his attention to detail and daring approach.
His father was a company director and his mother was a scientist when he was born on March 21, 1925 in London.
He dropped out of school at the age of 16 to work in a film studio before attending Oxford University and earning a degree in English and Foreign Languages.
In 1970, he moved from the United Kingdom to Paris, where he founded the International Centre of Theatre Research, which brought together actors and designers from all over the world.
Brook worked until he was in his nineties.
“Every form of theatre has something in common with a doctor’s visit.” “One should always feel better on the way out than on the way in,” he wrote in his 2017 book ‘Tip of the Tongue.’
