The Empty Space: A Book About the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate

Caffeinated Book Dragon reviewed The Empty Space: A Book About the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate by Peter Brook

A bit beyond me, but the style of expression lingered

3 stars

I forgot exactly why I got this book years ago, perhaps some class I flirted with taking or whatever, but if you are a theater student or considering working with the stage, there's a lot in this thin volume for you to think about. Mr Brook says much about the different approaches to theater and how the space plays a part in staging, dialogue delivery, even if traditional interpretation or more experimental would work best. Doesn't make it a book on stage direction, but rather one about the impact certain views regarding theater have on productions, players, and the audience. Not really what I was looking for myself, but much there for others.

Caffeinated Book Dragon reviewed The Empty Space: A Book About the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate by Peter Brook

Quite a lot in a little book...

3 stars

If you can withstand poetic prose that's not clinical or super-straightforward, then you can get through this book. It's written by a play director and actor who's studied the craft and really gotten a grasp as to what works or doesn't when it comes to plays and the way audiences (and the players, scene-setters, directors, etc.) view them. Some plays will be a hit one night, a miss on others, and some go out with a bang even though they've failed. Why? Audience interaction, changes to script or costume over time...who knows.

But this book is a great help in demystifying theater for a 20th and 21st century consumer of culture, by showing the pros and cons of training, audience expectations, rituals, set designs, costumes, acting and a play's run--among other things. Theater has been made into this upper-crust delight, something only rich people can enjoy, when the best performances …

If you can withstand poetic prose that's not clinical or super-straightforward, then you can get through this book. It's written by a play director and actor who's studied the craft and really gotten a grasp as to what works or doesn't when it comes to plays and the way audiences (and the players, scene-setters, directors, etc.) view them. Some plays will be a hit one night, a miss on others, and some go out with a bang even though they've failed. Why? Audience interaction, changes to script or costume over time...who knows.

But this book is a great help in demystifying theater for a 20th and 21st century consumer of culture, by showing the pros and cons of training, audience expectations, rituals, set designs, costumes, acting and a play's run--among other things. Theater has been made into this upper-crust delight, something only rich people can enjoy, when the best performances have often been in empty space and small venues, much as Shakespeare created in his day.

This book also helps demystify Shakespeare a bit, at the theater level, in case you're still a person like me who didn't quite "get" Shakespeare and what was so good about him.

Stephane Huart

rated it

Jan. 2, 2023

deer witch library

rated it

April 7, 2012