ABSTRACT
In one of Molière's comedies,56 a character declares that the sick are made for medicine, rather than medicine being made for the sick. The person who says this is a doctor. Similarly, there are people who think that audiences were made for theatre rather than theatre being made for audiences. Anyone who says this is an idiot. Theatre is a form of communication between human beings; the forms that theatre has taken did not develop autonomously, rather they have always responded to clearly determined social necessities and particular historical moments. The show is made for the spectator, rather than the spectator for the show; when the spectator changes, the show must also change.
