Performing Paradise

Performing Paradise offers a groundbreaking reassessment of one of the most influential yet misunderstood theatrical experiments of the twentieth century. This illuminating study delves deep into the aesthetic and cultural significance of the Living Theatre's revolutionary production "Paradise Now," tracing its journey from its French origins in 1968 through its controversial American tour and into its contemporary legacy. Through meticulous archival research, interviews with original collaborators and witnesses, and participation in modern reconstructions of the work, Emeline Jouve provides unprecedented insights into this landmark of collective creation. The book moves fluidly between historical analysis and contemporary perspective, examining both the original production's radical innovations in form and content and its fiftieth-anniversary revivals in France and Belgium in 2018. By contextualizing "Paradise Now" within the political landscapes of 1960s protest movements and experimental performance practices on both sides of the Atlantic, Jouve reveals the complex cultural exchanges that shaped this legendary work while dispelling persistent myths surrounding it. This compelling exploration will appeal to theatre historians, performance studies scholars, and practitioners interested in experimental theatre, as well as readers fascinated by 1960s counterculture, political art, and the enduring legacy of theatrical innovation.

Émeline Jouve, is Professor of US Theatre at Université Toulouse-Jean Jaurès, France. Lara Cox is Assistant Professor of Visual Studies at Université Toulouse-Jean Jaurès, France.

Acknowledgments Translator's Note Introduction 1. Theatre on the Margins: The Living Theatre, 1947-1967 2. Heterotopia of a Crisis: Paradise Now, Rites and Passages 3. Heterotopias of Deviation: Avignon '68 or the Birth of a Tragedy 4. 2018 and Paradise Today: The Survival of the Fireflies Conclusion. Paradise Now: The Other Side of the Mirror Name Index Index