Peter Brook

The level of education in Elizabethan times was remarkably high. There was a statutory principle that no country lad should be less qualified in classical knowledge than the sons of aristocracy

A poet absorbs all he experiences, a poet of genius even more so; he filters it and has the unique capacity to relate apparently widely separate or contradictory impressions to one another

In those days, it was an accepted legend in the English theatre that only a mature actress in her forties could attempt to play Juliet

basis of all Elizabethan theatre, and so began a long period of discovery. The theatre of the day, based on well-made West End plays, with their two intervals, had long lost all contact with the relentless Elizabethan rhythm. Each scene had to lead to another, never letting the audience go. Each scene had to be a stepping-stone for the next—there were no curtain breaks and pauses; no new scenery to get accustomed to. And not only did this demand a constant moving forward, it also made contrasts, unexpected changes of rhythm, tones, levels of intensity.

what intrigued me in Watteau was that apart from the elegant gallants, the lute players and the slightly melancholic harlequins, there was always a mysterious figure on one side, silently watching the revels. This was both an enigma and a clue. One day, its message became clear. At the end of Love’s Labour’s Lost, the joyful party is suddenly interrupted by a messenger carrying to the Princess news of her father’s death. In every production of the day, this was taken as a convenient way of bringing the play to an end. But this seemed to overlook the intuition of the young Shakespeare that lightness needs the shadow of darkness to make it real.

while praise is for a moment reassuring, the valuable criticisms are the ones that are clearly from an unbiased and intelligent mind. They make one think

I saw all that Romeo lacked. There was plenty of fire, colour and energy—which brought us a small minority of enthusiasts. But what was missing was an overall tempo, an irresistible pulse to lead from one scene to another

lightness needs the shadow of darkness to make it real.

When cubism was first greeted with howls of incomprehension, Gertrude Stein saw this as a clear example of how each century continues to see the present through the eyes of the past.

A play of Shakespeare’s must be played as one great sinuous phrase, never ending before the very end