Theatre in Eastern Europe

Extract

Right now, the East European theatre is the most exciting in the world. (When I say East Europe, I refer to the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, East Germany, and Yugoslavia.) This theatre is not necessarily the most accomplished, although that is a defensible claim. I mean that theatrical creativity is blooming there, and that, in the theatre, encouragements and incitements outweigh efforts to keep creative people in check.

The most important single element is the existence of a cheap, subsidized theatre that has mass appeal. Of course, subsidies encourage the continued popularity of a great deal of junk, but they protect quality as well, and sometimes theatre of the highest standards is popular, too. If subsidy is one secret, the other is the relative absence of competition. Television is generally confined to a single channel and only to certain hours of the day.