Théâtre Libre

The Théâtre Libre (French, Free Theater) was a theater that operated from 1887 to 1896 in Paris, France.

History

It was founded by André Antoine, who wanted to create a dramatization of an Émile Zola novel after the theater group for which he previously worked had refused. The Theater Libre was exempt from censorship and put on many plays that other theaters would not, such as Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts", which had been banned in most of Europe. The theater would also do at least one foreign work per year. Some of them included Leo Tolstoy, August Strindberg's "Miss Julie", B.M. Bjørnson's "A Bankruptcy", and Gerhart Hauptmann. It was the first of its kind and inspired many theaters and different approaches to acting. The theater had many problems, though. Actors left as they gained more notoriety. The theater would only do 3 performances of any production. The theater finally failed financially but it had done more than 100 plays by more than 50 playwrights. In 1894 Antoine let another director take it over since he was in severe debt. He ran it 2 more years until 1896.

Influence

The Libre Theatre combined Realism with Naturalism. Andre Antoine became known as the father of Naturalistic Staging. The theater tried to make every play as real as possible, such as when real beef carcasses were used on stage. A lot of sets were set up with all 4 walls then Andre Antoine would decide which wall to remove for the audience to see the play. Andre encouraged more natural acting and emphasized ensemble acting. He also replaced footlights with more natural lighting. Andre believed each play had its own unique environment.