Peter Brook: everything in the universe can be extraordinary.

In the early 1990s, I am sitting in a small auditorium at The National Theatre in London. Before the performance starts, someone on stage asks if you want to greet the visitors next to you. This immediately creates a different, more intimate dynamic in the auditorium. On a sleek stage with only a few props are four actors and an Arab musician. Yoshi Oida from Japan, Sotegui Kouyaté from Burkina Faso, Maurice Benichou from Algeria and David Bennent from Switzerland. The play is about patients with neurologisc...