ABSTRACT
The prospectus for a conference entitled “Why Theatre: Choices for the New Century”2 posed a question that goes straight to the heart of the matter that concerns me here: “Theatre and the media: rivals or partners?” My own answer to this question is unequivocal: at the level of cultural economy,3 theatre (and live performance generally) and the mass media are rivals, not partners. Neither are they equal rivals: it is absolutely clear that our current cultural formation is saturated with, and dominated by, mass media representations in general, and television in particular.
