“Life or Theatre?”

—  Charlotte Salomon

written text with brush, in her last painting JHM no. 4925 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charlotte_Salomon_-_JHM_4925.jpg: (558) 'Life? or Theater..', p. 824
Charlotte Salomon - Life? or Theater?

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 14, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Life or Theatre?" by Charlotte Salomon?
Charlotte Salomon photo
Charlotte Salomon 25
German painter 1917–1943

Related quotes

Charlotte Salomon photo

“And from that came:
Life or Theatre?”

Charlotte Salomon (1917–1943) German painter

Charlotte's last written page in brush, related to JHM no. 4925T https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charlotte_Salomon_-_JHM_-_4925T.jpg: 'Life? or Theater..', p. 823
Charlotte Salomon - Life? or Theater?

Stella Adler photo

“The theatre was created to tell people the truth about life and the social situation.”

Stella Adler (1901–1992) American actress and teaching coach

Quoted in Joan E. Kole, "Theatre and Aging" (2009), p. 1

“In the theatre, as in life, we prefer a villain with a sense of humor to a hero without one.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Theater

Augusto Boal photo

“In truth the Theatre of the Oppressed has no end, because everything which happens in it must extend into life….The Theatre of the Oppressed is located precisely on the frontier between fiction and reality – and this border must be crossed. If the show starts in fiction, its objective is to become integrated into reality, into life.”

Augusto Boal (1931–2009) Brazilian writer

Games for Actors and non-Actors (1992)
Context: In truth the Theatre of the Oppressed has no end, because everything which happens in it must extend into life…. The Theatre of the Oppressed is located precisely on the frontier between fiction and reality – and this border must be crossed. If the show starts in fiction, its objective is to become integrated into reality, into life. Now in 1992, when so many certainties have become so many doubts, when so many dreams have withered on exposure to sunlight, and so many hopes have become as many deceptions – now that we are living through times and situations of great perplexity, full of doubts and uncertainties, now more than ever I believe it is time for a theatre which, at its best, will ask the right questions at the right times. Let us be democratic and ask our audiences to tell us their desires, and let us show them alternatives. Let us hope that one day – please, not too far in the future – we’ll be able to convince or force our governments, our leaders, to do the same; to ask their audiences – us – what they should do, so as to make this world a place to live and be happy in – yes, it is possible – rather than just a vast market in which we sell our goods and our souls. Let’s hope. Let’s work for it!

Jim Morrison photo

“We have assembled inside this ancient
& insane theatre
To propagate our lust for life
& flee the swarming wisdom
of the streets”

Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors

An American Prayer (1978)

Susan Cooper photo

““All life is theatre,” he said. “We are all actors, you and I, in a play which nobody wrote and which nobody will see. We have no audience but ourselves….” He laughed gently. “Some players would say that is the best kind of theatre there can be.””

Susan Cooper (1935) English fantasy writer

Source: The Dark Is Rising (1965-1977), Silver on the Tree (1977), Chapter 9 “The City” (p. 139)

Antonin Artaud photo

“The Theatre of Cruelty has been created in order to restore to the theatre a passionate and convulsive conception of life, and it is in this sense of violent rigour and extreme condensation of scenic elements that the cruelty on which it is based must be understood. This cruelty, which will be bloody when necessary but not systematically so, can thus be identified with a kind of severe moral purity which is not afraid to pay life the price it must be paid.”

Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) French-Occitanian poet, playwright, actor and theatre director

The Theatre of Cruelty, in The Theory of the Modern Stage (ed. Eric Bentley) (1968).

“This is the Great Theatre of Life. Admission is free, but the taxation is mortal. You come when you can, and leave when you must. The show is continuous. Goodnight.”

Robertson Davies book The Cunning Man

Part 4, section 28. The last lines of the novel.
The Cunning Man (1994)
Context: "Can you tell me the time of the last complete show?"
"You have the wrong number."
"Eh? Isn't this the Odeon?"
I decide to give a Burtonian answer.
"No, this is the Great Theatre of Life. Admission is free but the taxation is mortal. You come when you can, and leave when you must. The show is continuous. Good-night."

“This is one of the cruelties of the theatre of life; we all think of ourselves as stars and rarely recognize it when we are indeed mere supporting characters or even supernumeraries.”

Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist

Source: The Deptford Trilogy: Fifth Business/The Manticore/World of Wonders

Related topics