Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T09:04:08.900Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Beyond Bourgeois Theatre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2021

Extract

The bourgeoisie has been in control of the theatre for about 150 years now First of all, it controls it by the price of land, which rose so sharply in the 19th century that, as you know, the workers left the city, resulting in buildings and entire quarters belonging to the bourgeois the theatres are almost all located in the center of the city. The bourgeoisie controls the theatre by the price of tickets which rose steadily in order to make the theatre a profit making enterprise. In France it also controls it by centralization, so that in just those cities where contact with a varied audience would be possible, plays do not come or come much later on tour. Finally, it controls it through the critics. It is an error to contrast the newspaper critic with the public. The critic is the mirror of his public. If he writes nonsense, it is because the public which reads the news paper will speak nonsense too therefore, it would be futile to oppose one to the other.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Tulane Drama Review 1961

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Excerpts of a lecture given by M Sartre at the Sorbonne in the Spring of 1960

References

Notes