The Empty Space Peter Brooks

The Empty Space Peter Brook’s The Empty Space is a book full of precise opinion that criticizes the present day status of theater. He goes into extreme detail and theory in four different aspects of theater: Deadly, Holy, Rough, and Immediate. Each of these aspects deals with different attributes of the theater that Peter Brook thinks are lacking in current theater today. While reading this book many emotions filled my conscience. I understood where he was coming from on a lot of his views, but for most of the book I just thought the content was pretty pretentious. But with any book on subjects such as these there will be either strong emotions of approval or dismissal. I did appreciate and understand some the arguments he articulated,
Theatre in back rooms, upstairs rooms, and barns. It is always the popular theater that saves the day, and the one factor they all have in common- a roughness”( Brooks, 65). These are just a few characteristics of the rough theatre. Brook says that the rough theatre is the theatre of the people, a theatre that lacks “style”. “The rough theatre doesn’t pick and choose: if the audience is resistive, then it is obviously more important to holler at the trouble makers- or improvise a gag- than to try to preserve the unity of style in a scene” (Brooks, 66). I find this type of theatrical work quite fascinating. Theater is supposed to be live and in the moment and response from your audience is key. I think it’s great that there is a theatre out there that isn’t afraid to break the third wall, one that is not intimidated by their audience but driven by it. They want to evoke a response even if that means straying away from the structural text. Brooks talks about this style of theatre being freed of unity and style, their audience doesn’t mind that they may have flaws or inconsistencies. The audience doesn’t mind because their theater is captivating, they break rules and defy laws and this is why they succeed. “Along with seriousness, committed and probing work, there must be irresponsibility” (Brooks, 69). I think this statement is definitely something that should be considered by every artist. We as artist like to work within structures; they are important to us and important to order. But if we loosen up our structures every now and then leave a little room for irresponsibility I do believe we will add more liveliness to the work we produce. Audiences want to be captivated, they want us to succeed but we must also give them something worth watching. This down to earth and direct theatre I think is fascinating and I believe there are many people