"No man reveals his depth, or his truth, without a challenge," the groundbreaking theater director Peter Brook told Croyden (In the Shadow of the Flame, etc.). Again and again in this fascinating collection of interviews with Brook about his extraordinary body of work—from tiny performances in African villages to his masterpiece, a nine-hour production of the Hindu epic The Mahabharata—Croyden shows how the craft of journalism can rise to the level of art itself by challenging an artist to reveal himself. The author, who has written about the theater for the New York Times
and other publications, draws out the aims and motivations that led Brook far beyond the commercial success that hit in 1971, with a beautiful, soaring production of A Midsummer Night's Dream
(the actors took to the air on trapezes, walked on stilts, swung on ropes) that liberated Shakespeare from chains of convention and dazzled crowds. By the time the play opened on Broadway, Brook (along with Croyden) was on a mountainside in Iran, directing a play that featured a made-up language and an international cast. Not content to liberate just Shakespeare, Brook and his Paris-based International Center of Theater Research were out to explore how the deepest human truths can be expressed in the most direct way possible. "Never satisfied, striving to find a more refined aesthetic to express the mysteries of the human spirit, Brook is unfazed by challenges, hardships, or criticism that may arise...." Croyden tracks Brook through his spiritual and geographic travels, asking challenging questions and refusing to back down until the answer Brook gives has the ring of personal truth. The resulting work will illuminate and enthrall anyone who loves the theater—and everyone interested in what it can mean to live fearlessly and creatively, to make one's life a search. (May)
