Quality of Mercy

Peter Brook is one of the world’s best-known theatre directors. Outstanding in a career full of remarkable achievements are 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. Since moving to Paris and establishing the Centre International de Créations Théâtrales at the Bouffes du Nord, he has produced a series of events which push at the boundaries of theatre, such as The Conference of Birds (1976), The Ik (1975), The Mahabharata (1985) and The Tragedy of Hamlet (2000). His films include Lord of the Flies (1963), King Lear (1970) and The Mahabharata (1989). His books, especially The Empty Space (1968), have been hugely influential.

'Should be required reading for any aspiring young directors and actors but also all serious theatregoers... the writing is a model of clarity, the ideas challenging but sensible... it should be on every reader's bookshelf'