The Great European Stage Directors Volume 5: Grotowski, Brook, Barba

This volume brings together three European theatre directors, Jerzy Grotowski (1933-99), Peter Brook (1925-) and Eugenio Barba (1936-), who have much in common. They are linked most explicitly by their exploration of the limits and parameters of theatre in relation to its form, the audience, its purpose and its space. Each of them in their own way has developed research processes in theatre-making and beyond theatre at different stages of their working lives. All have published books, talks and articles on their practice as well as various kinds of film documentation. They have frequently worked on classical European plays, but also explored music and song and myths from diverse cultures, often adapting source materials from outside their European cultural origins, with Indian culture of particular influence and significance for all three, along with Africa for Brook. Such interests have perhaps arisen from their dislocation or exile from their birth countries, which has strongly determined who they are.

The six authors approach the three directors in different ways. All approaches are informed to some extent by their direct engagement with the directors’ practices. They focus on key artistic works, their lives and significant influences on them, as well as their enduring legacies and importance worldwide. Their influence is conveyed as much through their plays and productions as through their writings. The chapters offer fascinating examples of what a director is, what a director does, and how their directing work becomes enmeshed with, as much as it arises out of, their lives.