Evoking and Forgetting Shakespeare
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by Peter Brook
Peter Brook is one of the most influential minds in today’s theatre. The impact he has had as an author and director of plays and films might just be immeasurable. His 1968 book The Empty Space as well as his 1970 Royal Shakespeare Company production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream have been hugely influential upon today’s scholars, directors, teachers and actors. The Theatre Communications Group (TCG), has produced the Dramatic Contexts series to document “important statements on the theatre by major figures in the theatre.” Thank you kindly, TCG. Being part of the Dramatic Contexts series, this isn’t a book that Brook published. This 47 page, large print book contains transcripts of two speeches Peter Brook made in the mid 1990s: Evoking Shakespeare and Forgetting Shakespeare, delivered in Berlin and Paris, respectively. If one were to compare this to Brook’s other works, Evoking and Forgetting Shakespeare leaves the reader wanting more. |
The book is not large and can easily be read in an hour. This reviewer was left unsatisfied with only 47 pages of Peter Brook’s ideas. Why not include more speeches and articles? However, in so few words, the Brook still manages to make some profound statements about producing, directing, and studying Shakespeare’s works today. The first section (Evoking…) raises and attempts to answer questions such as “Why is Shakespeare still relevant today?”, “Who was Shakespeare – the man?”, and “What do we mean by calling him a genius?” Brook explores Shakespeare’s capacity for memory. An author whose writing contains such densely-packed language full of imagery must have had a super-human talent for conjuring such images and in his mind (and linking them together). He speaks of the challenges of producing Shakespeare’s plays today and attempting to make them feel new and “modern” without losing the power of the language.
Forgetting Shakespeare asks the actor (or director, etc.) to “Forget that these plays had such an author. [...] So just assume, as a trick to help you, that the character you are preparing to play actually existed.” Why? Because you are not like Hamlet. Because you are not the news-caster for Shakespearean headlines. Because actors seem to do very well when the portray people who actually lived. Just look at any of your favorite biography films.. it’s true. This way we forget about the author, what his intentions may have been, his philosophy. All things that get in the way. So the only way to find Shakespeare is to forget him. My summarizing and paraphrazing is not nearly as eloquent or inspiring as Brook’s so I suppose you’ll just have to buy a copy and read it for yourself.
At nearly $9, it’s a little pricey for the amount of paper they used, so if you’re a casual Shakespeare reader this probably isn’t for you. This work, though, should be read by the die-hard fans as well as actors, directors, and teachers of The Bard. The ideas inside are well worth the price. And because of the short length, it’ll be easy to come back to again and again for inspiration.
Evoking and Forgetting Shakespeare
Willshill Apr 2
Sidebar to a recent subject: Interesting what he had to say about the watering down effect of translations –and this while directing in France–using French translations: “So the French translator has to make a choice and simplify the line to rediscover its purity, at the expense of sacrificing some of what in English is part of its real value.”
–Is there an echo in here?
The Book
I think the book, condensed as it is, mirrors the results of Brook’s evolution. He’s crystallized; and in much the same way, he talks about Shakespeare’s density. The danger in so short a treatise is that he’s SO precise and SO right.He makes it sound so clear it seems simple.
I think it’s important to remember that He’s been able to ‘forget’ Shakespeare because he spent so much time up to his neck in the work. (interesting that he almost seems to forget that a brilliant condensed analysis such as his own certainly has its roots–something must be known in order to have anything to ‘forget’).
This is sort of akin to a pro golfer who finds himself in the zone and hits every shot perfectly. He’s not thinking about technique–that would ruin everything. But certainly the ability to strike the ball with such unerring precision, over and over and again, has a little to do with the thousands upon thousands of golf balls he’s hit while analyzing and thinking very hard about his technique.–Just a little sweat might have been involved somewhere along the line.
I got into a back and forth a while back on another website over just exactly what HE (Brook) was evoking from his own experience.
It could be taken (as indeed it was in the case I mention),and mistakenly I believe, that Brooke’s saying that no one needs to really ’study’ Shakespeare at all–just turn on the tape. But Brook can only do that, because he’s already done the rest.
Just as the golfer obeys the rules of physics, inertia, and motion–applied to the technique learned in mastering the swing–so too are there “rules’ ( I prefer a different term–perhaps “guidelines”) that have to do with understanding what the heck kind of tools Will was using to express his genius. And, how he learned the Wordies so well, that he was able to Break the Rules with impunity in yet another expression of his genius.
Any good teacher will encourage the progressing student to “…forget about the rules–now just do it”.
In fact, Our Bard Blog Host has had many good and accurate things to say on the subject of these so-called “guidelines”.
I’m afraid I’ve worked with far too many actors who think they can just “be” Hamlet, so to speak. But the Mystery Brook speaks of has nothing to do with tapping into some kind of ethereal sense and ‘forgetting’ everything else–before we’ve taken the time to learn what “everything else”…Is. (really mangled syntax–I just broke a rule).Let me break another:this ain’t ‘Caddy Shack’. Ooooh, that felt good.
I believe Brook’s gems of genius have much more to do with “Remembering to Forget” what we already KNOW.