SOURCE: Harley, James. “The Art of Political Engagement: Governmental Responses to Paradise Now in Europe and America.” Theatre Studies 43 (1998): 38–50.

In the following essay, Harley compares the tactics used in France and in the United States to “limit the political outreach” of The Living Theatre's production of Paradise Now.

The summer of 1968 found the Living Theatre in Avignon, France, nearing the end of a four year self-imposed exile from America during which the company had developed a small repertoire of alternative dramatic pieces and a reputation for challenging the status quo. Since the company's 1959 production of Jack Gelber's The Connection, and continuing through the 1968 European tour, its challenges increasingly strayed from the artistic arena and began to step more frequently into the political realm.¹

Such a shift in emphasis entails certain consequences. The consciously political artwork must be considered within a larger dynamic, for it claims the status of...