The Prisoner

“The most pioneering theatre director of the twentieth century.” —Independent on Peter Brook

“Achieves a magnificent balance of stillness, relaxation, and narrative tension; compelling us to pause, to breathe, and to reflect, but also moving the story towards its end with the inevitability and energy of a natural force, harnessed by an absolute master.” —Scotsman

“Elliptical and surprisingly witty…There is a delicious lightness at play, however profound the play’s contemplations.” —Herald

“During one hour and fifteen minutes, the Earth stops spinning at its maddening speed, to allow Brook to whisper in our ear one of his beautiful universal stories.” —Les Echoes

“The work of an artist for whom the human heart has no secrets and who knows the revealing and consoling force of theatre.” —Le Figaroscope

Somewhere in the world, a man sits alone outside a prison. Who is he, and why is he there? Is it a choice, or a punishment? With The Prisoner, the internationally renowned theatre director Peter Brook and his long-time collaborator Marie-Hélène Estienne ask provocative and profound questions about justice, guilt, redemption—and what it means to be free.

The Prisoner opened at Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris, in March 2018, before an international tour which included performances at the Edinburgh International Festival, the National Theatre of Great Britain, and Theatre for a New Audience in New York.

Peter Brook is one of the world’s best-known theatre directors. Outstanding in a career full of remarkable achievements are his productions of Titus Andronicus (1955) with Laurence Olivier, King Lear (1962) with Paul Scofield, and The Marat/Sade (1964) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream(1970), both for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Since moving to Paris and establishing the International Centre for Theatre Research in 1970 and the International Centre for Theatre Creation when he opened the Bouffes du Nord in 1974, he has produced a series of events which push at the boundaries of theatre, such as Conference of the Birds (1976), The Ik (1975), The Mahabharata (1985) and The Tragedy of Carmen (1981) to name but a few.

His films include Lord of the Flies (1963), King Lear (1970), The Mahabharata (1989), Tell Me Lies (restored 2013) and Meetings with Remarkable Men (restored 2017).

His hugely influential books, from The Empty Space (1968) to The Quality of Mercy (2013), have been published in many languages throughout the world.

Marie-Hélène Estienne joined the Centre International de Créations Théâtrales (C.I.C.T.) in 1977. She was Peter Brook’s assistant on La Tragédie de Carmen, Le Mahabharata, and collaborated on the staging of The Tempest, Impressions de Pelléas, Woza Albert! and La Tragédie d’Hamlet (2000). She co-authored L’homme qui and Je suis un phénomène performed at Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord. She wrote the French adaptation of Can Themba’s play Le Costume, and Sizwe Banzi est mort by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona. In 2003, she wrote the French and English adaptations of Le Grand Inquisiteur (The Grand Inquisitor) based on Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov. She was the author of Tierno Bokar in 2005, and of the English adaptation of Eleven and Twelve by Amadou Hampâté Bâ in 2009. With Peter Brook, she co-directed Fragments, five short pieces by Beckett, and again with Peter Brook and composer Franck Krawczyk, she freely adapted Mozart and Schikaneder’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) into Une flûte enchantée. She co-created The Suit in 2012 and The Valley of Astonishment in 2013, both performed at the Young Vic, London.