Theatres at risk

Abstract

Theatre is necessary. However, as it moves through an ample, borderless field, it can become nomadic and poor or commercial, institutional, and expensive. This double play, as French director Antoine Vitez says, is portrayed by theatres’ architecture, which can either be a “coat” that welcomes the dramatic activity or a “building” which tries to stand out from among others. Examples of “coat” theatres are the Bouffes du Nord or the Cartoucherie at the Bois de Vincennes in Paris which, hidden in old residential and industrial parts of the city, can only be distinguished by a Théâtre sign on their facades. On the other hand, Charles Garnier’s Paris Opera is an example of a building that has become more of a monument, for it did not only fulfill its urban, economic, and military role, but also an artistic, architectonic, and theatrical one that attracted the bourgeoisie, who were in need of a place to hang around and to have a look at each other. With the same idea in mind, the Teatro Nacional de Catalunya was built at the end of the 20th Century to be a “temple”, because, as its first director said, the theatre was to become a radiant sphere of the city’s life. Being a place of social gathering, it has certainly become the temple it was meant to be. However, the resulting urban impact is rather disappointing. Theatres walk hand in hand with a city’s life; their mutual histories are made up of times of encounter and severance and can be traced by scouting over a city’s theatrical map. This layout can be interpreted as the result of a sometimes harmonious and sometimes harsh relationship between the city and its theatres. These places must not die in oblivion, for they are arteries of social life.