From the Crowd in the Street to the Voice of the People: February 1934

Abstract

In February 1934, the monthly trade-union review La Voix du Peuple made an earnest appeal for the people to take to the stage.1 The occasion was a lesson on popular theatre by Marcel Lapierre, designed for the autodidactic worker to deepen his knowledge of literature and to appreciate the artistic contribution of his class. Drawing illustrative examples from the ancient world to the twentieth century, Lapierre described and exalted the role of the people on stage and in the streets, whether in classical drama, medieval mystery plays, the French Revolution, or recent experiments in social and popular theatre. While sympathetic to the efforts of well-meaning intellectuals to nourish the relationship between art and the people, he was convinced that the time had come for the people to take their artistic and political future into their own hands. At the heart of the city, the theatre of the future should be a collective theatre, exalting a collective—and revolutionary—faith.KeywordsFrench RevolutionSocialist PartyParliamentary SystemParliamentary DemocracyGeneral StrikeThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.