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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 December 2021
“The theatre is in the street. The street belongs to the people. Free the theatre. Free the street. Begin.”
From Paradise NowThe Living Theatre came alive again during the Summer. A glimpse of the group's new work in progress, The Legacy of Cain, surfaced along with news that 15 members of the group, including Julian Beck and Judith Malina, had been arrested in Brazil.
The Legacy of Cain is the first major work by the group since Paradise Now, which had its world premiere in Avignon, France, on July 24, 1968.
At this writing, just past mid-August, the 15 members of The Living Theatre are still being held in “preventive detention” by the authorities in Brazil. A spokesman for the group said that under Brazilian law the group could be held until October 1 without formal charges being brought.
1 Two of the pieces in the Cain cycle presently in partially written form are “Favela Project Number 1,” and a subtitle under this section called “Christmas Cake for the Hot Hole and the Cold Hole.” Steve Ben Israel asked TDR to refrain from publishing these pieces, which appeared early this year in abbreviated form in the Italian magazine Ubu, until The Living Theatre legal case was settled in Brazil.
2 “The Rite of I and Thou begins with the Mantra ‘OM’ and leads to revivication through the union of two persons, an T and a ‘This.’ The brain here is the source of power and inspiration, but the command for action is ‘the command of the Guru from above.’ This Guru is the Man in the Street.” (From Paradise Now by Judith Malina and Julian Beck, Random House, 1971)
