Alain Badiou & Nicolas Truong 
In Praise of Theatre 

In Praise of Theatre is Alain Badiou’s latest work on the ‘most complete of the arts, ‘ the theatrical stage. This book, certain to be of great interest to scholars and theatre practitioners alike, elaborates the theory of the theatre developed by Badiou in works such as Rhapsody for the Theatre and the ‘Theses on Theatre’ and enquires into the status of a theatre that would be adequate to our ‘contemporary, market-oriented chaos.’

In a departure from his usual emphasis upon canonical figures of the stage such as Bertolt Brecht and Samuel Beckett, Badiou devotes In Praise of Theatre largely to a consideration of contemporary practitioners, including Jan Fabre, Brigitte Jacques and Romeo Castellucci. In addition, the book features an incisive analysis of the precarious status of the theatre today, in which Badiou describes not only the current threats to the theatre from the right, but the far more insidious threat from the left.

Table of Content

Contents

Alain Badiou and the untimely stage: translator?s

introduction by Andrew Bielski

1. Defense of an endangered art

2. Theatre and philosophy, story of an old couple

3. Between dance and cinema

4. Political stages

5. The place of the spectator

Translator?s notes

Index

About the author

Alain Badiou is a writer, philosopher and an Emeritus Professor at the École Normale Supérieure, Paris.

Nicolas Truong is a writer and journalist and a regular contributor to Le Monde.