The Politics of Theatre in France Today
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Abstract
The idea that theatre is a political art par excellence is commonplace, especially in France. It is on this founding myth – an updated version of the ancient Greek agora – that the French ‘public theatre’, financed by central and regional public authorities, is based. This chapter begins by considering the causes of this myth and its effects. It then shows that the expression ‘political theatre’ actually covers a plurality of ways of thinking about the political function of this art, which coexist today in France, and which to a certain extent clash, both ideologically and aesthetically. Consequently, the overall aim of the essay is to present what I have called, borrowing from pragmatic sociology, four ‘cities of political theatre’: the post-political theatre, the oecumenical political theatre, the rebuilding of the theatrical and political community, and the theatre of political struggle.