Théâtre Libre (performing arts center)

The Theatre Libre was founded in eighteen eighty-seven by a former gas company clerk named Andre Antoine. He launched this independent venture specifically because mainstream commercial houses refused to stage his dramatization of a controversial novel by Emile Zola. To bypass the strict government censorship of the era, he operated the theatre as a private club for subscribers rather than a public venue. Because they did not sell tickets at the door, the authorities could not legally classify it as a theatre, which gave Antoine the freedom to stage raw, realistic dramas that were otherwise banned across Europe.