The Stage

11 and 12

Published Thursday 11 February 2010 at 12:25 by Mark Shenton

Given the guru-like reverence with which the 84-year-old Peter Brook is now treated in some theatrical circles, it’s no surprise to find a wise old master of spiritual and moral enlightenment at the centre of his latest production, dispensing worldly pearls of wisdom about the elusive search for the truth and a universal call for religious tolerance in the absence of a definitive version of it.

A scene from 11 and 12 at the Barbican Theatre Photo: Tristram Kenton

Brook too, has spent his entire career in a quest for theatrical enlightenment - but the narrative he has devised on this particular journey, filtered through the autobiographical account of the life of African writer Amadou Hampate Ba, is full of philosophy but not enough action. A lot of the drama is narrated rather than shown, and there’s a distancing, too, between the stripped-back, faux-naivety of the execution and the complexity of ideas it is seeking to put across.

Brook, of course, has probably earned the right to copy himself, but his work has been so much imitated that seeing the painfully slow procession of tableaux and debate presented here, played out against a constant moaning percussion from a single musician stage left, is enervating rather than energising. The soporific result, in which a small gesture - whether a prayer should be said 11 or 12 times - leads to big repercussions, is difficult to engage with.

The multicultural company comprising African, European, American, Palestinian and Japanese performers may seek to give it a universal resonance, but the clash of accents puts further strain on identifying with any of them.