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.