ABSTRACT
In 1963 a small audience arrived at the Living Theater's studios in New York to find that doors were padlocked and the premises seized by the Internal Revenue Service which was trying to recover four years' non-payment of taxes. 'From protest to resistance' Eric Bentley discussed the value of the theatre in such a situation. His claims for it were modest - to bear witness, to keep up the spirits of the rebels and, quoting Julian Beck, to shake the rigidities of the audience. Bentley could not understand why the Living Theater burnt dollar bills on stage, when they were asking for money off it. But the Living Theater's theatrical gesture did not prevent them from having to buy brown rice with the tokens they detested. They needed to have money to survive and to burn. This mutual incomprehension was not always hostile. It could be gentle, forbearing, eager to please. It was the dawn of the Age of Aquarius.
