Théâtre Libre (performing arts center)

The Theatre Libre sits behind a facade of ornate, dark red metalwork on the Rue de la Fidelite. Andre Antoine founded the theater in eighteen eighty-seven to stage raw, naturalistic plays that mainstream houses rejected. He hung real beef carcasses on stage for one production to achieve total realism, shocking his audience and changing French drama forever. The space remains a working stage today, still tucked into the dense urban fabric where Antoine first broke the conventions of the nineteenth century stage.