Rhapsody For The Theatre

By Alain Badiou and Bruno Bosteels

For Alain Badiou, theatre—unlike cinema—is the place for the staging of a truly emancipatory collective subject. In this sense theatre is, of all the arts, the one strictly homologous to politics: both theatre and politics depend on a limited set of texts or statements, collectively enacted by a group of actors or militants, which put a limit on the excessive power of the state. This explains why the history of theatre has always been inseparable from a history of state repression and censorship.

This definitive collection includes not only Badiou’s pamphlet Rhapsody for the Theatre but also essays on Jean-Paul Sartre, on the political destiny of contemporary theatre, and on Badiou’s own work as a playwright, as author of the Ahmed Tetralogy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781781681862

Alain Badiou

Alex Kirstukas has published and presented on Verne's work for both academic and popular audiences and is a trustee of the North American Jules Verne Society as well as the editor of its peer-reviewed publication Extraordinary Voyages. Kirstukas' first published translation was Robur the Conqueror by Jules Verne and published by the Wesleyan University Press in 2017.

Reviews for Rhapsody For The Theatre

[jonfaith · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

So Alain Badiou is a playwright as well as a philosopher? I wouldn't have guessed at such, would've likely bet against the possibility. What do I know? I'm sitting in Atlanta pecking away on a small screen. Rhapsody is actually six pieces spanning 15 years and apparently at least 4 plays, all the while composing Being and Event and other dense polemics. Badiou states his argument that upper-case Theatre is linked inextricably with the State. It's performative immediacy allows a certain truth to be conveyed, unlike the novel it is the personal expression of the role and the spectator's individual response which maintains a distance. I felt the pieces somewhat limp and Badiou's self-promotion irritating. What do I know? I have been up since 5 and our flight doesn't leave for 3 more hours. Who needs a beer?