Ride of the Valkyrie

Peter Brook's take on the Shakespeare classic.

Adaptation of John Gay's 18th century opera, featuring Laurence Olivier as MacHeath and Hugh Griffith as the Beggar.

King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.

Composed of three shorts – Ride of the Valkyrie, The White Bus, and Red and Blue – from three of Britain’s most-celebrated directors - Lindsay Anderson, Peter Brook, and Tony Richardson. Comic legend Zero Mostel stars as an opera singer (in full costume) navigating the London transport network as he attempts to reach Covent Garden in 'Ride of the Valkyrie'. Scripted by Shelagh Delaney, 'The White Bus' blends realism, drama, and poetry as a despondent young woman travels home to the North of England. And Vanessa Redgrave stars in Tony Richardson’s romantic reverie and musical featurette 'Red and Blue'. Produced in 1967, but ultimately shelved.

With hindsight, we can see exactly how wrong the labels given to Samuel Beckett have been, since it has been said that his writing was sad, negative and desperate. Nowadays, it can be said that several of his pieces submerge us in the reality of human existence, but with an element of humor - and it is this humor that has saved us. Beckett rejects every theory, every core belief, looking for the truth. He observes people amid the darkness and takes them into what is vast and unknown about life, so they can discover their truth by taking a look at themselves and others. Like Beckett, we share their uncertainty, their search, their pain. This theatrical reflection by the masters of European theater, Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne, incorporates parts of Fragments, a piece premiered in 2008 and filmed in 2015 and which contains the short plays Rough For Theater I, Rockaby, Act Without Words II and Neither.

A wealthy and bored woman (Moreau) is witness of a murder in affection and meets another witness (Belmondo). She asks him about the history of the victim and falls in love with him.

In Charenton Asylum, the Marquis de Sade directs a play about Jean Paul Marat's death, using the patients as actors. Based 'The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade', a 1963 play by Peter Weiss.

Amidst a nuclear war, a plane carrying a group of schoolboys crash lands on a deserted island. With no adult survivors, the boys are forced to fend for themselves. At first they cooperate, but when the they split into two separate camps -- one led by the pragmatic Ralph and the other by militaristic Jack -- their society falls into disarray, leading to a disturbing examination of human nature and a chilling conclusion.

Live performance at Théâtre de l’Archevêché du Festival d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence 2002. Daniel Harding conducting the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Choeur de l'Académie Européenne de Musique. Directed for stage by Peter Brook.