Theater & Revolution: The Culture of the French Stage

Theater and Revolution traces the history of popular theatrical forms in France from their heyday in the eighteenth century to their revival and transformation in this century. Frederick Brown's theme throughout is the deep divide between 'official' French culture and a popular tradition that survived on the edges of civic life, adapting itself to the censorial policies imposed first by the monarchy and later by bourgeois governments. Until the Revolution of 1789, actors on Parisian fairground stages were, officially, not even allowed to speak. This mutism went beyond the theater: everything deemed vulgar about the spoken language of France was consigned to oblivion by the Academie Francaise, which not only compiled the nation's dictionary but also carried out the general cultural strategies of successive regimes. Inevitably, intellectual and artistic nonconformity expressed itself in movements to liberate imprisoned words and images, in the invention of secret languages and celebrations of silence. The men and women who laid the foundations of modern theater in France - Jacques Copeau, Charles Dullin, and Jean-Louis Barrault, among others - were all champions of mime theater, and their use of this and other popular idioms influenced theater and film everywhere. Frederick Brown's book is more than an original and important contribution to European cultural history. It contains as well some fascinating personal stories: the interwoven portraits of major figures in European theater are remarkable contributions to the biographical genre. And throughout, Theater and Revolution is illustrated with drawings, engravings, and photographs of the greatest and most expressive moments in French theatrical history.