1. Introduction: citizenship and theatre -- 2. Athens: Democracy and chorality ; The frogs ; Plato and Aristotle -- 3. Florence, Rome and Machiavelli: Machiavelli's political works ; Cicero ; Terence's Andria ; The mandrake and the Society of the Trowel ; 'The sunflower' in a politician's garden ; Coda: Goldoni, Ayckbourn and the comic genre -- 4. From Coventry to London: Christian fraternity ; The Weavers' pageant in Coventry ; Shakespeare, Heywood and London ; John Milton and the revolution -- 5. Geneva: Rousseau versus Voltaire: Geneva ; Rousseau ; The Letter to d'Alembert ; The battle for a public theatre ; Conclusion: two ideals -- 6. Paris and the French Revolution: Brutus and the active citizen audience ; Tragedy as a school for citizens: the career of M.-J. Chénier ; The revolutionary festival ; Diderot and bourgeois realism -- 7. The people, the folk, and the modern public sphere: Collectivism in pre-war Germany ; The Indian People's Theatre Association ; In search of the public sphere -- Epilogue: Washington's monuments to citizenship.