Biography

Irina Brook is an internationally acclaimed opera and theatre director known for her bold and innovative productions. Her work in opera has garnered attention at some of the world’s most prestigious venues, with recent highlights including her return to the Wiener Staatsoper for Don Pasquale and to Teatro alla Scala for La Rondine. She recently made her Japanese opera debut with Carmen at the Tokyo Nikikai Opera.

Brook’s opera career began with a successful debut directing Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte for the Nederlandse Reisopera. She has since directed a diverse range of operatic works including Yevgeny Onegin, La Cenerentola and La traviata. Her work at Teatro alla Scala includes Die Sieben Todsünden & Mahagonny-Songspiel and Il matrimonio segreto.

Born in Paris, Irina Brook grew up immersed in the arts, as the daughter of director Peter Brook and actress Natasha Parry. She moved to New York at 16 to study acting with Stella Adler, making her stage debut in Off-Broadway productions before transitioning to directing. Her breakthrough as a director came in London in 1996 with Beast on the Moon, followed by several successful productions including Mrs Klein and All’s Well that Ends Well.

In 2003, she founded Irina’s Dream Theatre in Paris, through which she has toured globally. From 2014 to 2021, she served as Director of Théâtre National de Nice, where she continued to push artistic boundaries and in 2021, she was appointed Artist-in-Residence at Teatro Stabile del Veneto. She was named Artist-in-Residence at Château d’Hardelot’s Elizabethan Globe Theatre in 2023.

Irina Brook is an internationally acclaimed opera and theatre director known for her bold and innovative productions. Her work in opera has garnered attention at some of the world’s most prestigious venues, with recent highlights including her return to the Wiener Staatsoper for Don Pasquale and to Teatro alla Scala for La Rondine. She recently made her Japanese opera debut with Carmen at the Tokyo Nikikai Opera.

Brook’s opera career began with a successful debut directing Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte for the Nederlandse Reisopera. She has since directed a diverse range of operatic works including Yevgeny Onegin, La Cenerentola and La traviata. Her work at Teatro alla Scala includes Die Sieben Todsünden & Mahagonny-Songspiel and Il matrimonio segreto.

Born in Paris, Irina Brook grew up immersed in the arts, as the daughter of director Peter Brook and actress Natasha Parry. She moved to New York at 16 to study acting with Stella Adler, making her stage debut in Off-Broadway productions before transitioning to directing. Her breakthrough as a director came in London in 1996 with Beast on the Moon, followed by several successful productions including Mrs Klein and All’s Well that Ends Well.

In 2003, she founded Irina’s Dream Theatre in Paris, through which she has toured globally. From 2014 to 2021, she served as Director of Théâtre National de Nice, where she continued to push artistic boundaries and in 2021, she was appointed Artist-in-Residence at Teatro Stabile del Veneto. She was named Artist-in-Residence at Château d’Hardelot’s Elizabethan Globe Theatre in 2023.

Awards & Honours

1998

Five Molières including Best Director, Une Bête sur la Lune
 

1999

Mitrani Prize at FIPA
 

2000

Molière for Female Theatrical Revelation · SACD New Hope Prize
 

2002

Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres
 

2013

Air France Prize for Innovation and French Culture Abroad
 

2016

Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres · Premio Susan Strasberg
 

2017

Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur
 

2023

Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
 
EARLY LIFE & TRAINING
  Born in Paris, daughter of director Peter Brook and actress Natasha Parry.
  At eighteen she moved to New York to train with Stella Adler.
  Her stage debut came Off-Broadway, followed by theatre and film work in Paris and London.
1996 Directorial breakthrough with Beast on the Moon at the Battersea Arts Centre, London.
  Followed by Mrs Klein and All's Well That Ends Well.
1998 Awarded five Molières, including Best Director and Best Play, for her own French adaptation Une Bête sur la Lune.
2000 Awarded the Molière for Most Promising Female Talent.
  Major productions for Théâtre de Vidy (Lausanne), Bobigny and Théâtre de l'Atelier (Paris), including Brecht's The Good Person of Sezuan, Marivaux's L'Île des Esclaves and Juliette et Roméo.
  Founded her own company, Irina's Dream Theatre, touring pared-back stagings of Shakespeare and the classics.
  En Attendant le Songe, her six-actor adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, toured internationally for more than 500 performances.
2002 Won the Prix Mitrani (FIPA) for the film of Beast on the Moon.
  Presented major productions at international festivals including the Salzburg Festival, the Barbican Centre (London) and the Spoleto Festival.
  Featured works included Ibsen's Peer Gynt and The Island Trilogy.
1999 Operatic debut with Mozart's Die Zauberflöte for Nederlands Reisopera (27 August – 3 September).
  Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence.
2005 Verdi's La Traviata at the Opéra de Lille and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.
2014 Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
2017 Rossini's Cenerentola at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, subsequently remounted in Stockholm, Bologna and Wrocław.
  Continued her collaboration with the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on Giulio Cesare.
2019 Donizetti's Don Pasquale and Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Vienna State Opera.
2014–19 Director of the Théâtre National de Nice — the first woman to hold the post.
2015 Launched eco-theatre initiatives, inspired by COP21.
2020 Premiered House of Us at Teatro Biondo, Palermo — an interdisciplinary research piece drawn from her mother's life and a lifetime in theatre.
2021 Developed House of Us further in Venice with the Goldoni Theatre, presented at the Tre Oci Museum on Giudecca.
2021 Returned to Palermo to direct Seagull Dreams, her own adaptation of Chekhov's The Seagull.
2022 Named Artist-in-Residence at Château d'Hardelot's Elizabethan Globe Theatre (Boulogne), where she created LEAR?, a new version of King Lear.
2020s Multiple productions for Teatro alla Scala, Milan, including Il Matrimonio Segreto, La Rondine and a filmed version of Brecht–Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins / Mahagonny.
Jan 2025 Japanese opera debut with Carmen at Tokyo Nikikai Opera.
May 2025 Returns to La Scala for the world premiere of a Brecht–Weill triple bill, conducted by Riccardo Chailly.

"And it's in these moments of connection between the audience and the actor, between the actor and their character, between fiction and life, that we say: yes. That's why we do this work..."

— Irina Brook

1990s
1996 Beast on the Moon (Richard Kalinoski) — directorial debut, Battersea Arts Centre, London (May).
1996 Mrs Klein (Nicholas Wright) — Palace Theatre, Watford.
1996 All's Well That Ends Well (Shakespeare) — Oxford Playhouse.
1998 Une Bête sur la Lune — her own French adaptation. Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne and MC93 Bobigny, later Théâtre de l'Œuvre, Paris.
1999 All's Well That Ends Well — directing Ariane Mnouchkine's Théâtre du Soleil at the Avignon Festival.
2000 Resonance.
Early 2000s Der Gute Mensch von Sezuan (Brecht) — touring production.
Early 2000s L'Île des Esclaves (Marivaux) — touring production.
Early 2000s Juliette et Romeo — Théâtre de l'Atelier, Paris.
2001 Une Bête sur la Lune — television adaptation, awarded the Prix Mitrani at FIPA.
2003 Founded Irina's Dream Theatre Company.
2006 The Glass Menagerie — New National Theatre, Tokyo (February), with a Japanese cast.
2006 A Midsummer Night's Dream / En Attendant le Songe — six-actor version, premiered at Festival Dedans-Dehors, Brétigny-sur-Orge. Toured France, Switzerland and across Europe; Bouffes du Nord, Paris; Rideau du Spectacle, Quebec City and a Canadian tour (2010).
Mid-2000s Die Zauberflöte (Mozart) — Nederlandse Reisopera, co-directed with Dan Jemmett, conducted by Ton Koopman.
Mid-2000s Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky) — Aix-en-Provence Festival.
Mid-2000s La Cenerentola (Rossini) — Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris; remounted at the Royal Opera Stockholm, Teatro Comunale Bologna and in Wrocław.
2007 Il Burbero di buon cuore (Martín y Soler) — Teatro Real, Madrid; remounted in Barcelona (2011).
2008 Somewhere... la Mancha — based on Don Quixote. Villeneuve-lès-Avignon Festival (July); Paris premiere (April 2009); toured France and Europe, including Almagro and Yerevan.
2009-11 Une Odyssée — ongoing tour.
2009-11 Tempête! — based on The Tempest.
2009-11 La Traviata (Verdi) — Bologna and Lille.
2009-11 Giulio Cesare (Handel) — Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.
2010 Shakespeare's Sister ou la vie matérielle — adapted from Virginia Woolf and Marguerite Duras. La MaMa, New York.
2011 PAN — her version of Peter Pan. Théâtre de Paris.
2012 Peer Gynt (Ibsen) — Salzburg Festival (July).
2012 Tempête! — Salzburg Festival.
2013 La Trilogie des Îles / The Islands Trilogy — Spoleto Festival, comprising Odyssée, Tempête! and L'Île des Esclaves. Awarded the Air France prize for innovative staging.
2014 Une Odyssée — staged across the gardens and museums of Nice (June), then at the TNN.
2014 Peer Gynt (Ibsen) — TNN (September); Barbican Centre, London (October); continued touring through 2016.
2014 Hov Show — collaboration with Hovnatan Avedikian (December).
2015 Shakespeare's Sister (La Vie Matérielle) — adapted from Virginia Woolf and Marguerite Duras (January); toured 2016.
2015 Tempête! — February revival.
2015/16 Terre Noire (Stefano Massini) — revived in the 2016/17 season.
2015/16 Lampedusa Beach — with Romane Bohringer; revived in the 2016/17 season.
2015/16 Question Mark (Stefano Massini) — performed in schools and colleges throughout the season.
2016-19 Continued productions and curated programming at the Théâtre National de Nice.
  Don Pasquale (Donizetti) — Vienna State Opera.
  A Midsummer Night's Dream (Britten) — Vienna State Opera.
2021 Die Sieben Todsünden & Mahagonny-Songspiel (Weill / Brecht) — Teatro alla Scala (March), conducted by Riccardo Chailly. Filmed during COVID lockdown; later presented at New York City Opera (2022).
2021 House of Us (Part 1) — Fondazione Sant'Elia, Palermo (Autumn). Multimedia work weaving Chekhov, personal memory and improvisation; continued at Galleria Tre Oci, Venice (November).
2022 Il Matrimonio Segreto (Cimarosa) — Teatro alla Scala (September), an Accademia project conducted by Ottavio Dantone.
2024 La Rondine (Puccini) — Teatro alla Scala (April), conducted by Riccardo Chailly.
2025 Carmen (Bizet) — Tokyo Nikikai Opera (February). Stage director and costume designer, conducted by Nodoka Okisawa.
2025 Weill Triptych — Die Sieben Todsünden / Mahagonny-Songspiel / Happy End. Teatro alla Scala (May), new expanded production conducted by Riccardo Chailly.