…There are few theatres at which dramatic works are produced in all their natural freshness, their innate directness, in their original form, in other words. First of all they have to pass through the sieve of censorships and then be subjected to the collaboration of a systematic, experienced, and, what is worse, perhaps ignorant director. At the Théâtre Libre they appear in all their pleasing naivete and completeness, without embellishments and puerile abbreviations. If the success is but small, the result is a severe but useful lesson to the writer; if on the other hand it is great, the author gets all the credit. Double gain!

And both the credit and the lesson are so much more valuable because they do not owe anything to a charming staging of the play.

Here one does not find those superb settings which dazzle the eye and make the spectators overlook the emptiness of the action; none of those widely famous virtuosities which, like a scarlet cloak, hide the poverty of the form.

Here the staging of plays is very simple, and the performers consist of a handful of young devotees who combine all the naivete of inexperience with the conviction and enthusiasm of youth.

Shakespeare was not interpreted better than this when he wrote his masterpieces.


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