Peter Brook on Stanislavski, Meyerhold and his Russian Relatives

Interview held in the theatre Bouffes du Nord, Paris (june 2009). Konstantin Stanislavski (1863 1938) was a seminal Russian theatre practitioner. He was widely recognised as an outstanding character actor and the many productions that he directed garnered him a reputation as one of the leading theatre directors of his generation. His principal fame and influence, however, rests on his system of actor training, preparation, and rehearsal technique. Vsevolod Meyerhold (1874 1940) was a Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre. During the Great Purge, Meyerhold was arrested, tortured and executed in February 1940.