Rhapsody for the Theatre

For Alain Badiou theatre—unlike cinema—creates a space in which philosophy can be lived. It is of all the arts the most closely related to politics: both depend on a limited number of texts or statements which are collectively enacted by a group of actors or militants who test the limits of the structure inn which they are confined be it the medium of drama or the nation-state. For this reason the history of theatre is inseparable from the history of state repression and censorship. <br><br>This definitive collection of Badiou's work on the theatre includes not only the title essay "Rhapsody for the Theatre" originally published as a pamphlet in France but also essay on Jean-Paul Sartre on the political destiny of contemporary drama and on Badiou's own work as a playwright.