As I have mentioned before, Peter Brook was a great influence of mine and one approach that really influenced me was in the way in which he strives to use a number of forms of theatre in order to achieve something new and fresh. Below are just some of the influences I had when directing ‘The Trial’.

Within the performance of ‘The 39 Steps’ I am particuarly influenced by the use of staging and props to tell the story and the way they did this in front of the audience. There was no use of deception and as a Director I feel it is important to share all aspects of staging with your audience in order to create that Shared Experience.

I was partiuarly influenced by the use of the grotesque expression and focus on the body and voice explaining the story. Again, the focus on story was put at the forefront and this was something that further influenced me.

Brook’s production of A Midsummer Nights Dream inspired me to further look into the ways in which you can use the physical resources of the theatre to conjure up new ways of interpreting texts and sharing the story. I was also inspired by how he had such a bare stage, that was brought to life by the actors and their props. This allowed me to consider how my staging could reflect something similar.

Doing a Berkoff adaptation, the script lends itself to the work of himself. Although I did not watch Berkoff’s adaptation of ‘The Trial’ to avoid repeating anything, I watched interviews and some of his other productions such as ‘East’. This inspired me to further look into the work of Lecoq, focussing on the use of the body. What has always influenced me within Berkoff’s work is how he uses the actors to create physically stunning pictures; it’s as if you are watching a slideshow of a story falling apart and being moulded back again before your eyes. This was something that I was very impressed by and therefore strived to achieve.

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