Peter Brook, 1925-2022

I don't believe many others understood the value of the arts in challenging us, in giving us new perspectives, in the way that Peter Brook did.

As the radio announced is death they played an audio clip of Peter Brook describing the worst of middle-class tendencies: to comfort and preference, and theatre's responsibility to challenge.

This is the realm of parables and punchlines, coaching and failure; the creation of spaces that allow for something outside of ourselves to create cracks in our facade. These are saccades for seeing reality better.

It occurs to me also that Peter Brook had a lived experience of Albert Camus' three characters: the conservative, the revolutionary and the rebel. But a lived experience that was under-pinned by a great level of respect for the humanity in each.