Peter Brook

Peter Stephen Paul Brook (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) was an English theatre and film director. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential figures in the history of twentieth-century theatre, he has received various accolades, including two Tony Awards, the Praemium Imperiale, the Prix Italia and the Europe Theatre Prize. In 2021, he was awarded India's Padma Shri.

Brook was based in France from the early 1970s, where he founded an international theatre company, playing in developing countries, in an approach of great simplicity. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). With them, he directed the first English-language production in 1964 of Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss, which was transferred to Broadway in 1965 and won the Tony Award for Best Play, and Brook was named Best Director. He co-founded the International Centre for Theatre Research in 1970, and was its artistic director until 2008.

Brook's feature film credits included screen versions of plays like The Beggar's Opera (1953), Marat/Sade (1966), King Lear (1971), and The Mahabharata (1989); and literary adaptations such as Seven Days... Seven Nights (1960) with Jeanne Moreau, and Lord of the Flies (1963).