'Destruction never approaches weapon in hand. It comes slyly, on tiptoe, making you see bad in good and good in bad.'

The devastation of war is tearing the Bharata family apart. The new king must unravel a mystery: how can he live with himself in the face of the devastation and massacres that he has caused.

In Battlefield, the internationally renowned team of Peter Brook, Marie-Helene Estienne and Jean-Claude Carriere revisit the great Indian epic The Mahabharata, thirty years after Brook's legendary production took world theatre by storm.

An immense canvas in miniature, this central section of the ancient text is timeless and contemporary, asking how we can find inner peace in a world riven with conflict.

It was first performed at Theatre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris, in 2015, before an international tour including a run at the Young Vic Theatre, London, in 2016.

About the Author
Peter Brook (1925-2022) was one of the most influential and important figures in twentieth-century theatre. Outstanding in a career full of remarkable achievements were his productions of Titus Andronicus (1955) with Laurence Olivier, King Lear (1962) with Paul Scofield, and The Marat/Sade (1964) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (1970), both for the Royal Shakespeare Company. After moving to Paris and establishing the International Centre for Theatre Research in 1970 and the International Centre for Theatre Creation when he opened the Bouffes du Nord in 1974, he produced a series of events which pushed at the boundaries of theatre, such as Conference of the Birds (1976), The Ik (1975), The Mahabharata (1985) and The Tragedy of Carmen (1981) to name but a few. His films include Lord of the Flies (1963), King Lear (1970), The Mahabharata (1989), Tell Me Lies (restored 2013) and Meetings with Remarkable Men (restored 2017). His hugely influential books, from The Empty Space (1968) to The Quality of Mercy (2013), Tip of the Tongue (2017) and Playing by Ear (2019), have been published in many languages throughout the world. Marie-Helene Estienne joined the Centre International de Creations Theatrales (C.I.C.T.) in 1977. She was Peter Brook's assistant on La Tragedie de Carmen, Le Mahabharata, and collaborated on the staging of The Tempest, Impressions de Pelleas, Woza Albert! and La Tragedie d'Hamlet (2000). She co-authored L'homme qui and Je suis un phenomene performed at Theatre des Bouffes du Nord. She wrote the French adaptation of Can Themba's play Le Costume, and Sizwe Banzi est mort by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona. In 2003, she wrote the French and English adaptations of Le Grand Inquisiteur (The Grand Inquisitor) based on Dostoyevsky's Brothers Karamazov. She was the author of Tierno Bokar in 2005, and of the English adaptation of Eleven and Twelve by Amadou Hampate Ba in 2009. With Peter Brook, she co-directed Fragments, five short pieces by Beckett, and again with Peter Brook and composer Franck Krawczyk, she freely adapted Mozart and Schikaneder's Die Zauberfloete (The Magic Flute) into Une flute enchantee. She co-created The Suit in 2012 and The Valley of Astonishment in 2013, both performed at the Young Vic, London.

Reviews

'Peter Brook's return to The Mahabharata is breathtaking - a dazzling piece of theatre'

* Guardian *

'An hour of magic realism... it has a gentle power that lingers'

* The Times *

'Delivered with remarkable grace and deceptive lightness of touch'

* Financial Times *

'Luminous and potent'

* Independent *

'Combines the immediacy of story-telling with the purity of Greek tragedy'

* Sunday Express *

'Something profound is felt on the pulse here... Peter Brook achieves rare magic, and with the slenderest art'

* Telegraph *



Book Information
ISBN 9781848427051
Author Peter Brook
Format Paperback
Page Count 40
Imprint Nick Hern Books
Publisher Nick Hern Books