The Romand Popular Theatre

Extract

The Theatre Populaire Romand (Romand Popular Theatre) or TPR celebrated its fifteenth anniversary in 1976. For a professional, completely autonomous troupe whose politics and administration are independent from any control by authorities, this is a record rarely equaled in Switzerland or even in Europe.

This remarkable endurance owes much to the will and determination of the troupe's director, Charles Joris, who has always established and maintained solid and homogeneous groups despite the internal crises and the periodic defections inherent in an enterprise of this sort. But strong will and a coherent theatrical project do not register in a void. The most eminent characteristic of the TPR is precisely its long-term political vision: the concrete insertion of its theatrical activity into the life of the region, of the territory where it has chosen to work.