Popular Theatre and Political Utopia in France, 1870-1940

This book is the first study of popular theatre in France from left to right, exploring how theatre shapes political acts, ideals, and communities in the modern world. As the French found innovative ways of imagining culture and politics in the age of the masses, popular theatre became central to the republican project of using art to create citizens, using secular spaces for the experience of civic communion. But while state projects often faltered in finding playwrights, locations, and audiences, popular theatre flourished on the political and geographical peripheries. Drawing on extensive archival research, this book illuminates lost worlds of political conviviality, from anarchist communes and clandestine agit-prop drama to royalist street politics and right-wing mass spectacle. It reveals new connections between French initiatives and their European counterparts, and demonstrates the enduring strength of radical communities in shaping political ideals and engagement.

1. Introduction. - 2. Citizens of Utopia: Popular Theatre and the Republican State. - 3. Folk Art, Faith, and Nationalism: Popular Theatre in the Provinces. - 4. Beyond the Peuple Fidèle: Catholic Theatre and the Masses. - 5. Anarchist Theatre in the Belle Époque: The Beauty of Revolt. - 6. The Art of Revolution, from Romain Rolland to Communist Agit-Prop. - 7. The Art of Counter-Revolution, from Royalist Satire to Fascist Mass Spectacle. - 8. Conclusion.