Conference of the Birds

Conference of the Birds is John Heilpern's true story of an extraordinary journey. In December 1972, the director Peter Brook and an international troupe of actors (Helen Mirren and Yoshi Oida among them) left their Paris base to emerge again in the Sahara desert. It was the start of an 8,500-mile expedition through Africa without precedent in the history of theater. Brook was in search of a new beginning that has since been revealed in all his work--from Conference of the Birds and Carmen to TheMahabharata and beyond. At the heart of John Heilpern's brilliant account of the African experiment is a story that became a search for the miraculous.

John Heilpern is Chief Drama Critic for The New YorkObserver and contributing editor to Vogue. He is the author of How Good is David Mamet, Anyway? also published this season by Routledge (see p. 000).

Introduction; Chapter 1 1; Chapter 2 2; Chapter 3 3; Chapter 4 4; Chapter 5 5; Chapter 6 6; Chapter 7 7; Chapter 8 8; Chapter 9 9; Chapter 10 10; Chapter 11 11; Chapter 12 12; Chapter 13 13; Chapter 14 14; Chapter 15 15; Chapter 16 16; Chapter 17 17; Chapter 18 18; Chapter 19 19; Chapter 20 20; Chapter 21 21; Chapter 22 22; Chapter 23 23; Chapter 24 24; Chapter 25 25; Chapter 26 26; epilogue Epilogue;