Théâtre Libre
The Théâtre Libre (French for free theater ) was a Parisian theater company that existed from 1887 to 1896. It was founded in 1887 by the gas works employee and theater lover André Antoine (1858–1943) . With this foundation he wanted to take action against the censorship and mutilation of socially critical plays. It was a theater association that staged socially critical plays by Ibsen and Hauptmann in closed general assemblies bypassing the censorship. This is how the milieu determined in Antoine's productions. For the movements of the characters, props that were as realistic as possible were used and amateur actors were hired because traditional actors were too artificial for him. In 1894 the experiment failed due to financial difficulties.
In Germany, a group of directors, writers, journalists and publishers led by Otto Brahm , Maximilian Harden and Theodor Wolff founded the short-lived Free Stage in Berlin in 1889, based on the model of the Théâtre Libre , from which the Free Volksbühne Berlin emerged shortly afterwards . In England ( London ) in 1891 - inspired by Antoine's example - a similar theater was founded, the "Independent Theater Society", in which traditional British entertainment was combined with new socially critical content. Pieces by George Bernard Shaw were performed there for the first time.
literature
- Dennis Kennedy: The Spectator and the Spectacle. Audiences in Modernity and Postmodernity . Cambridge University Press, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-89976-5 (Investigates the relationship between artistic avant-gardes, such as the naturalists, and spectators and audiences. Explains in detail, among other things, Antoine's productions at the Théâtre Libre and their effects).
