Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord

The Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord is a jagged, soot-stained brick shell hidden behind a faded facade on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis. Inside, the plaster peels from the walls in great, textured sheets, and the velvet upholstery has frayed down to the wood frames. When the director Peter Brook discovered the ruins in nineteen seventy, he refused to renovate the interior. He kept the charred remains of the theater from its eighteen seventy-six opening to preserve the raw, ghostly presence of the space.