Following their voluntary exile to Europe, the Living Theatre took an active role in the radical social movements that were developing there, eventually abandoning the theatre placefor the streetsfor the reasons setforth in thefollowing manifesto from April 1970.
THE STRUCTURE IS CRUMBLING! ALL OF THE institutions are feeling the tremors. How do you respond to the energy?
For the sake of mobility The Living Theatre is dividing into four cells. One cell is currently located in Paris and the centre ofits orientation is chiefly political. Another is located in Berlin and its orientation is environmental. A third is located in London and its orientation is cultural. A fourth is on its wayto India and its orientation is spiritual. If the structure is to be transformed it has to be attacked from many sides. This is what we are seeking to do.
In the world today there are many movements seeking to transform this struc-ture—the Capitalist-Bureaucratic-Military-Authoritarian-Police-Complex into its opposite: a Non-Violent-Communal-Organism. The structure will fall if it's pushed the right way. Our purpose is to lend our support to all the forces of liberation.
But firstwe have togetout ofthe trap. Buildings called theatres are an architectural trap. The man in the street will never enter such a building:
1) Because he can't: the theatre buildings belong to those who can afford to get in; all buildings are property held by the Establishment by force of arms.
2) Because the life he leads at work and out of work exhausts him.
3) Because inside they speak in a code ofthings which are neither interesting to him nor in his interest.
The Living Theatre doesn't want to perform for the privileged-elite anymore because all privilege is violence to the underprivileged. Therefore the Living Theatre doesn'twantto perform in theatre buildings anymore. Get out of the trap; the structure is crumbling. The Living Theatre doesn't wantto be an institution anymore. It is... clear that all institutions are rigid and support the Establishment. After 20 years the structure of the Living Theatre had become institutionalized. All the institutions are crumbling. The Living Theatre had to crumble or change its form. How do you get out of the trap?
1) Liberate yourself as much as possible from dependence on the established economic system. It was not easy for the Living Theatre to divide its community, because the community was living and working together in love. Not dissension, but radical needs have divided us. A small group can survive with cunning and daring. It is now for each cell to find means of surviving without becoming a consumer product.
2) Abandon the theatres. Create other circumstances for theatre for the man in the street. Create circumstances that will lead to action which is the highest form of theatre we know. Create Action.
3) Find new forms. Smash the art barrier. Art is confined in thejail of the Establishment's mentality. That's how art is made to function to serve the needs of the people, get rid of it. We only need art if it can tell the truth so that it can become clear to everyone what has to be done and how to do it.
World History
