When I heard that Peter Brook was working on a new stage adaptation of Shakespeare's Tempest, together with his almost life long artistic partner Marie-Hélène Estienne, something obvious appeared to me : considering his 95 years at the time, it might be his latest project… Sadly, maths and stats did their job fine, for once, as he would pass away two years later.

At the time, as I was not living in Paris, where it took place, I wasn't able to experience this latest theater show by myself, but I advised some acquaintances to try it out… The impressions I got back expressed a certain fragility in this work ; but you know, that is also the nature of living art and stage performances…
Anyway, this show had a good run meanwhile, with more than 100 nights (which is fairly good, nowadays, in France, even for "institutional" productions), and it happen to be shown again in Paris lately.

This time, I took my chance and got some tickets - and that was very fine !

Peter brook : another kind of a legend

Like quite a few people in love with the theater, one of my key revelations happened with this man and his work, beginning with his "Tragedy of Hamlet", which was fabulous. I've had the chance to experience the French version, with William Nadylam in the title part (instead of Adrian Lester, who worked in English and appears in the TV version), together with Natasha Parry, Bruce Myers, Sotigui Kouyate and a few others…

Later on, I could discover his other works, notably his incredible movie : "Lord of the Flies", where a bunch of kids fly away from Britain during WWII. Their plane crashes in the middle of the ocean and they find themselves alone on an island. They form a little society of young Robinsons Crusoe, which soon gets to its own kind of tragedies.

His movie version of King Lear, with Paul Scofield, was also worth the try, with this beastly, smelly atmosphere…

To put it briefly, this stage and film director had a tremendous impact on the theater arts, with a simpler yet more organic and living way of acting (but very far from the actor's studio). On a personal level, he was an enormous influence and reference - so far, actually, that after having read and reread about all of his books, I had to get away from it, at least for a while !

Tempest Project

Let's get back to this latest stage adaptation, directed by Estienne and Brook, which I had the chance to experience in their most beloved space : the "Bouffes du Nord' theater, which is a wonderful place by itself. Strangely enough, this spot hasn't fell into a cold institutional petrification (yet).
When you enter the building, the appearance of the walls strike the eye, beginning with those corridors which old bricks, which guide you to the main room. In the performance hall itself, the decaying walls bring you somewhere else, in another world…

For this performance, the stage is empty - which is actually quite classic for Estienne and Brook : it is almost like a signature.
A few wooden sticks and respectable logs lie on the floor - a full potential, really.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting too much, following the feedbacks from two years ago - and that's also a good way never to be disappointed, right ?

I tried to unplug the mental wires of the analysis, in order to permit a more sensible and lively experience (which makes it harder to write a post afterwards), promoting a rawer sensitivity towards the action, and loosening the way to potential emotions.

And yes, that was a great artistic experience !

This stage adaptation was very short, compared to the original text, and their creators focused on a few themes, with two of them specifically catching my full attention :

• The question of freedom, expressed through Ariel's and Caliban's servitudes, as well as the impression of imprisonment on the island, or the ambition of the young generation to go freely towards Love ;
• Forgiveness : Prospero, having deployed and accomplished his last and great plans, strips himself of his own powers and goes very simply to his former foes, to give and receive pardon. The idea of revenge, which appears quite clearly in the full Shakespearian text, is therefore shed and transformed. Thanks to this focus, this adaptation leads the audience to think harder on that (important) matter, long after the end of the show.

The stylistic approach is in the classic vein of Estienne and Brook, with the attention to the essential : the actors and the imagination. Once again, those sticks may become sometimes swords, clubs, a magic wand, or a path in the open for two lovers going towards one another. All of this works thanks to the imagination of the actors on stage, as well as the fantasy of the people watching and listening

For once, the delicate magic of the performance arts worked, and the audience was vibrating along the actors.

Simple ideas were used, for instance : 4 flashlights would project numerous shadows on the walls, multiplying the silhouettes of the two young lovers, engaging themselves to one another ; we could take the time to watch and feel a simple door closing, after the exit of a young amorous lady ; or even laugh at a bunch of drunkards, who believe they'll conquer the whole world… Thanks to it all, we, as an audience, were echoing the action.

The scenic action was simple and subtle.
By the way, the role distribution was fine : with multiple and specific personalities (which makes sense on the stage), the show still had a common style and a continuity… and that answered the play's needs, as we go through a lot : emotional memories, hopes for a new future, clownish stories and a few encounters…

In this kind of acting, attention to the other is key. There was a great contrast between the action (major) and the reaction (minor), as everybody knows : the court makes the king - and that's precisely what happened here.

I don't have any personal photos, nor any video of the show, but let's try to imagine it :

Let's figure ourselves the old Prospero, with his daughter Miranda. He rules over the island (is it a paradise or just a desert ?), with his spirit servant Ariel, and his slave Caliban, who (or which) is halfway human, halfway beast - something of a brute.
Prospero stands in the center, on his wooden kind of a throne, as Caliban is prostrated far away, under some filthy rags. The latter listens, without a word, his heart burning of anger.
This is a classic, but it works - even better, it is dramatically important, as it expresses the conflicting powers at stake in the play, as well as underlying desires.

Brook and Estienne, as well as their team, offered a great and vivid crystallization of Shakespeare's text, where women, men and spirits ruminate, hope, feel sometimes despaired, some other times are filled with anger, or get transformed by the power of love.

As an audience, after the show, we feel somewhat matured and trustful once again in Humanity. Like the impressions from about any text by A. Chekhov, we're reassured : there still room for intelligence and sensitivity in this strange world of ours.
1 hour and 15 minutes of living, funny and sincere scenic life - that was precious, indeed !

V.