Hi All, Peter Brook wasn't able to attend the awards held in his name this year (at which NTW was the proud recipient of the Dan Crawford Award for Innovation), but he sent along a speech that you might be interested in:

EMPTY SPACE 2011

Sorry, no jokes this time – it’s serious …  The past is past and I’m never  interested in going back on it.  But there are always exceptions.

Suddenly the title of an article that I wrote long, long ago springs into life.  It was “Oh for Empty Seats.”  Strange, because I’ve always believed that the audience is an indivisible part of Theatre and the fuller the house, the more it can throb and thrill.  So why empty seats – and why again today?  It means taking risks, losing a ready-made audience.  We all know inside out how shocks, violence, crudeness, vulgarity can’t fail to fill houses and they can go even farther than was inconceivable a year ago.  It’s easy to understand – full houses mean cash, paying the wages, paying the rent – to play safe is human.  We have now a new category to add to Deadly Theatre – the theatre of Filling Time – or worse still the theatre of Killing Time, in a world of frustration.

But there is an ever present need, for deep human need, a need together with many others like ourselves to express something more, something that gives hope, real hope makes this life worth living, making survival full of meaning.  Remember how many years Beckett played to empty houses before being acclaimed.  To bring back drops of humanity in fresh forms is a tremendous challenge.  It is what Theatre is for.  It means playing dangerous and this needs support, strong material support.  The key to survival.  Subsidy.

Peter Brook ©