English director Peter Brook collected the first International Ibsen Prize
yesterday for his successful demonstration that all significant theater has a
unique ability to bring people together, according to reports reaching from
Oslo.
Throughout his career Brook has explored and extended the boundaries of
theater, and has played a central role in the development of this medium for
over half a century. His productions have traveled all over the world and been
enjoyed by thousands of audiences, the jury of the prize said in a statement.
Brook comes from a Russian-jewish background. He was born in London in 1925.
Since 1970, he has been living and working in Paris.
Brook made his first film, A Sentimental Journey, at the age of19, and a year
later he directed his one and only Ibsen play, The Lady from the Sea. In 1946 he
directed Shakespeare's Love's Labor's Lost in Stratford-upon-Avon, a theater to
which he was to return again and again throughout his career.
Brook's ideal is and always has been Shakespeare. Shakespeare's plays have
given him the freedom to move between the outer and the inner world, between
fantasy and reality, the jury added.
The prize will be presented to Brook at the National Theater's main stage in
Oslo on Aug. 31.
The International Ibsen Award was established by the Norwegian government in
2007. The prize amount is set at 2.5 million Norwegian Kroner (about
US$500,000).
