The Valley of Astonishment, The Young Vic

The Valley of Astonishment hails the return of legendary British director Peter Brook and his long-term collaborator Marie-Hélène Estienne to the Young Vic. It comes hot on the heels of their critically acclaimed The Suit, which impressed London audiences in 2012. At 88, Brook is as innovative as ever. His 36-year reign at Le Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, in Paris, has come to an end and now he is concentrating on creating new shows and touring them internationally.

His latest play is a follow-up to 'The Man Who', an exploration of the brains of neurological patients. Inspired by Oliver Sack's best-selling 'The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat', The Man Who was a 1993 performance piece looking at human beings whose behaviour had become unpredictable due to mental illness.

The Valley of Astonishment depicts individuals for whom music, sound, taste and images trigger a wide variety of sensory experiences which mean they view the world in a radically different light. For instance, seeing a certain colour would conjure the sense of taste, or letters and words an unexpected image:  this phenomenon is summed up in the play’s tagline: 'Imagine a world where the number 8 is a fat lady'. The play asks the question: ‘What do we really perceive?” 

In devising the play, Brook and Estienne have drawn inspiration from years of neurological research, true stories and the 12th century Persian poet Farid Al-Din Attar’s epic mystical poem, The Conference of the Birds. Brook describes how this neurological journey 'will take the spectator into new and unknown territories through people whose secret lives are so intense, so drenched in music, colour, taste, images and memories that they can pass any instant from paradise to hell and back again.'

The Paris-based pair have brought together an artistic team which is as international as you can get: the award-winning English director and actor Kathryn Hunter ('Kafka’s Monkey' at the Young Vic), Theatre de Complicite associate Marcello Magni , and Japanese experimental percussionist Toshi Tsuchitori .

With Brook at the helm, we expect the setting to be characteristically minimal, but the performances, content and staging should be rather stimulating. This may not be the most entertaining evening you plan for yourself in 2014, but it will certainly be one of the most thought-provoking.