Theatre legend Peter Brook dies, aged 97

Paris: The France-based British theatre director Peter Brook, who revolutionised the stage with radical interpretations of the classics before returning drama to its simplest roots, has died aged 97, a source said Sunday.

Brook, born in the UK but resident in France for decades, died on Saturday, a source close to the director, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

He also won renown for his iconic 1963 film version of the novel "Lord of the Flies" about schoolboys who are marooned on an island and descend into savagery.

Brook rose to fame in the UK as a young director who put a radical, and sometimes bloody, spin on classics including the works of Shakespeare, working with actors who would later become themselves legends.

But his methods underwent a gradual transformation after he moved to France in the early 1970s, reducing theatre to pure simplicity and often influenced by eastern traditions.