Théâtre Libre

The Théâtre Libre (French for "Free Theatre") was a theatre company that operated from 1887 to 1896 in the Montmartre district of Paris, France.

Théâtre Libre was founded on 30 March 1887 by André Antoine, who wanted to create a dramatization of an Émile Zola novel, Thérèse Raquin after the theater group for which he previously worked had refused. The Théâtre Libre was exempt from censorship and put on many plays that other theaters would not, such as Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts, which had been banned in most of Europe. The theater performed one foreign work per year and it staged only three performances of any production. Some of them included Leo Tolstoy, August Strindberg's Miss Julie, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson's A Bankruptcy, and Gerhart Hauptmann. It was the first of its kind and inspired many theaters, such as the Freie Bühne in Berlin and the Independent Theatre Society in London, as well as different approaches to acting.

Playbills and posters were created by leading artists of the day with an unglamorized, gritty realism that reflected the spirit of the theatre and its repertoire. Among the artists that produced the most memorable works for its plays were Henri-Gabriel Ibels, Édouard Vuillard, Paul Signac, George Auriol, Adolphe Willette, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

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