The Components of Peter Brooke's Immediate Theater in the Performance of Shakespeare: Regarding the Element of Present in the Ideas of Jan Katt works (Case Study The Tempest and The Tragedy of Hamlet)

<p>Peter Brook, as a theater director, has a circle of wide and varied and sometimes conflicting experiences, which categorized by himself as Deadly, Holy and Rough theater. These experiences, directly lead to the introduction of his final and most profound way The Immediate theater. This research examines the ideas of Jan Katt about Shakespeare's contemporaneity, which had a significant impact on changing the way directors like Brook looked at Shakespeare in the 20th century. A look that points out the contemporary elements of these plays and tries to find the contemporary presence in these works. What Katt refers to as presence is the correspondence between the present or now of dramatic play with present or now of audience or reader in any given time or place and what intertwines between the two. And how Katt’s ideas shed a new light on classic plays and ways to read them and how it suggests new forms and meaning for performative aspects of these plays. Then, it examines and analyzes the elements of Immediate theater of Brook and qualities that he seeks in a theater production, namely clarity and invisible or underling network of relations, and Brook's methods in his performances of Shakespeare's works. The present research has been done with the descriptive-analytical research method and the library-documentary research tool method. Performances of <em>The Tempest</em> and <em>The Tragedy of Hamlet</em>, both produced during the immediate theater period, are examined, and Brook's methods and adaptations according to Jan Katt ideas are discussed. In <em>The Tempest</em> Brook used play and game, in the literal sense of the word, so the magic of Shakespeare world finds meaning for modern audience, furthermore he uses international members of his group of actors as a way to make an international understanding of the play and its aesthetics. In The <em>Tragedy of Hamlet</em>, Brook demonstrates the height of his ideas about Immediate theater and tries to create a universal yet faithful performance of <em>Hamlet</em> for contemporary audience. He uses his international cast of actors in a different way than <em>The</em> <em>Tempest</em>. He no longer uses their native theatrical form rather he uses their different race and nationality as a way to make <em>Hamlet</em> an international contemporary play rather than a historical one. Brook’s readings on both of these plays correspond with Katt's reading of them, on different levels and aspects. Finally, important issues of this research are the explanation of the differences between contemporary and traditional attitudes towards Shakespeare's works in the shadow of the <em>presence</em> element of Katt’s ideas and examination of the elements of immediate theater, by explaining their relationship with the presence of Katt and their comparison with the traditional ways of performing Shakespeare. Brooke's arrangements and methods in <em>The Tempest</em> and <em>Tragedy of Hamlet</em> show how the removal of historical distance creates a new experience between the audience and classical text. Immediate Theatre qualities remove or reduce the historical elements and values of the play in favor of direct connection to the audience. These qualities create what Katt referred to as presence.</p>