11 and 12 , Barbican, Review
The latest piece from famous theatre director Peter Brook
"The storytelling is didactic, po-faced and slow," says Hitchings. The intention of 11 and 12 seems like how a small component influence a large issue, especially in this religious context. It bring issues of faith, truth, and relationship between govement and common people. "I would not want to engage directly with the criticisms but say something parallel to them," says Brook. All the storytelling addresses profound spiritual and political issues. However, it is hard to really got involved in, maybe because of the serious religion subject.
Although, the live music of this performance is really fantastic. It reminds me to think about my interim project. My colleagues discussed about how the sound effect create a rhythm of live performance, compared with cinema and television program. It raised a question for me that how prerecording sound and music tie in live performance. In Brook’s piece 11 and 12, he used a musician who plays a group of instruments, such as a kinds of percussion instrument. That was strongly impressed on my memory. The music could play many different properties for each scenes. What is more, because of its simple sets , props and lights, the music becomes extremely important. It leading us to a serious religious atmosphere.
Tracing back to Brook’s earlier work. Brook as an explorer of theatrical performance raised the revolutionary issue “deadly theatre” which inspired a lot of experimental theatre artists. Citing his book The Empty Space "I take an empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space and someone else is watching him, and that is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged." Brook believe that language own the biggest power to convey informations. The more to make the stage empty the more audiences has a great view. That is why live performance have its unique pureness quality that compared with film and television. In this piece 11 and 12, obvious body and language were also more important than other elements.
Brook’s work experience shown me the consideration of the essence of drama. Theatre artists have to give up the priority of spectatorship from audiences perspective. What we need at present is plays that get inside the minds of love, peace and tolerance, Do not hiding our professional thing, build on a boundary in between audiences and actors. He argues that, “the theatre should be about touching something of the hidden feeling behind certain events, of bringing the invisible into palpable life. For one moment, one's own emotional prejudices can be opened”. From this point, I argue that while created performance work is about sharing experiences, showing the simplicity and understanding easily without any masks, thus the audience could put their trust in our work. Performances could become absorbing.
