Tag Archives: Brook

A reflection on the theatre company process

Looking back at the process it is possible to see where the company has diverted away from their initial ideologies. STAMP’s aim in the beginning was to create a performance that did not rely on aesthetics but on the performer and their relationship with the audience. Reflecting on the final performance of The Trial I feel that we potentially had a striking aesthetic due to the simplicity and intelligence of the set and as such contradicted our initial aims in the manifesto. As is stated, ‘we will play with our source, we will have fun with what we can do with it’ (Watson 2013, online), though the playing and creativity of the set unintentionally broke away from the manifesto’s aims, we as an ensemble were able to explore and play as Brook would have intended. I feel this still made for entertaining theatre.

Post-show comments from audience members suggested that the performances were excellent and the aesthetic of the piece was correct, though it could be argued that with The Trial there is almost a moment of sudden bathos that occurs in the second act with the story of Block, we tried to achieve this change in mood but still maintain the playfulness that occurred in the first half of the play. It was only when K was alone with the audience that we really wanted the mood to be turned on its head- possibly this was too late for the audience to make that distinction. The play itself was enjoyable to perform in and our end product was something to be admired and appreciated as good theatre, even if it had strayed from our initial aims.

Our aim was to create a pure theatre; perhaps we still achieved this but not in the way we envisaged. The entire process has been an eye opening experience into the industry and how it functions. Hopefully STAMP Theatre will revise the ideologies of the manifesto and continue to make interesting and diverse theatre.

Work cited

Watson, A. (2013) STAMP Theatre’s Manifesto, Online: (Accessed 22/05/2013).

Brook, P. (1968) The Empty Space, London: Penguin.

My reaction to the manifesto and The Trial

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‘I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage.A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre’ (Brook 1968, p. 11).

If we take this idea that the relationship between spectator and the actor is the necessary catalyst for theatre to occur, then we must also consider what it takes to fuel the performance from the actor to a relatable state for the spectator. For STAMP we want the characters and the story to drive our performances, which ultimately derives from the work of the actor. We believe that we do not need grand aesthetic features because in our eyes the actor and the work he/she is doing is the only spectacle that is necessary.

Theatre has, as Brook suggests, become deadly (Brook 1968); what STAMP aim to do is break the boundaries of theatre and use all that is old to create something new. We are going to be drawing from all aspects of theatre and making it better and breath new life in to it. For us no practitioner is wrong, no style is incorrect. We want to stamp our own mark on the theatrical scene, taking what is already present and overused and making it into something that feel fresh.

The Trial seems to be an excellent starting point for the company to begin expressing these ideologies through, as it is a diverse and absurd play which can incorporate the playing of Brook, the bio-mechanical elements of Meyerhold and even the naturalism of Stanislavski. Berkoff’s play offers STAMP the option of freedom and will allow us to further explore theatrical convenitons and ourselves as a singular and as a collective company.

Brook, P. (1968) The Empty Space, London: Penguin.

‘Before the Door’: Dramaturgical Foreword

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As the idea to perform Steven Berkoff’s adaptation of Franz Kafka’s The Trial preluded the writing of our manifesto, the choice of play and the company ethos are somewhat intertwined – namely storytelling, adaptation and performativity. Although it is the theatricality of Berkoff – similarly sharing a strong influence from Brook – that attracted us to the play, the shadow of Kafka ties into both Berkoff’s theatre and our manifesto beyond merely being the originator of The Trial. As both dramaturge and producer, it is important for me that the literature, theories, and styles of our influences pervade our work and inform our performative choices, just as our dramatic tastes chose our sources. Practically, rather than keep a workbook, my role as dramaturge will be to research The Trial and utilise my findings in aiding the director and performers in their choices, and post dramaturgical writings onto the blog (for which I have distributed a loose schedule and idea sheet for my colleagues [Blog entry guideline]).

Our manifesto’s intent to conjoin binary oppositions is shared in the work of our stimuli. Just as Berkoff merges the high language of Shakespeare with the earthier narratives of lower class urban life, specifically seen in East and West, Kafka shares this ‘gift to turn the surreal into the matter-of-fact’, possessing ‘the power of seeming both real and strange at once’, as Malcolm Bradbury writes on the Modernist figure (1988, p. 258). In The Metamorphosis, the absurd situation of Gregor Samsa’s inexplicable overnight transformation into a man-sized insect is reacted to with as much bafflement with his condition, as anxiety in getting to work on time. This dedication is matched by Joseph K.’s affinity to the bank, despite the increasing threat of his unknown case. In a reversion of Chekhov’s invocation that ‘we must work’, The Trial displays that this alone is no longer satisfactory. Joseph K. is the doomed figure who cannot survive because he searches for answers that cannot be answered from condemners who are not present. For the performing artist, who must not merely work but struggle for the vitality and relevance of their occupation, K. is the avatar of Brook’s ‘Deadly Theatre’, possessing ‘the viewpoint that somewhere, someone has found out and defined how the play should be done’ (Brook 2008, p. 17).

Before the Law, published separately by Kafka, serves as a meta-narrative, ‘a parable of life’s quest to discover meaning and significance, though it also implies the ambiguity of all significance’ (Bradbury 1988, p. 274). Kafka’s implication in ‘this gate was made only for you’ (2005, p. 4) seems to be that everyone has their perspective interpretation. Rather than see stories, like K., as deceptive (which undoubtedly gives theatre its appeal), we see it as a source for interpretation (which brings theatre its force). This makes The Trial not only a prime text for our company’s ethos and performance, but one that lends itself to constant adaptation.

Word count: 483.

Works cited

Berkoff, Steven (2011), The Trial, in The Trial, Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony: Three Theatre Adaptations from Franz Kafka, London: Amber Lane Press, pp. 5-69.

Berkoff, Steven (2000), East, in Steven Berkoff: Plays 1, London: Faber and Faber, pp. 1-42.

Berkoff, Steven (2000), West, in Steven Berkoff: Plays 1, London: Faber and Faber, pp. 43-94.

Bradbury, Malcolm (1988), The Modern World: Ten Great Writers, London: Secker & Warburg.

Brook, Peter (2008), The Empty Space, London: Penguin.

Kafka, Franz (2005), Before the Law, trans. by Willa Muir and Edwin Muir, in Nahum N. Glatzer (ed.), The Complete Short Stories of Franz Kafka, London: Vintage, pp. 3-4.

Kafka, Franz (2005), The Metamorphosis, trans. by Willa Muir and Edwin Muir, in Nahum N. Glatzer (ed.), The Complete Short Stories of Franz Kafka, London: Vintage, pp. 89-139.

Kafka, Franz (1999), The Trial, trans. by Willa Muir and Edwin Muir, London: Vintage.

Images from Franz Kafka (2009), The Trial, ed. Ritchie Robinson, trans. Mike Mitchell, Oxford: Oxford University Press; Peter Brook (2008), The Empty Space, London: Penguin; Steven Berkoff (2000), Steven Berkoff: Plays 1, London: Faber and Faber.