Living Theatre performances polarised critics and counterculture audiences

Evidence

There were five more performances of Paradise Now. Critics came to hate it. Writing in the Freep, John Lahr called it “a shocking and sadly facile gesture.” Yippies came to dig, although Abbie Hoffman told the New York Times that he didn’t need to see the Becks’ work to know their theater was “beautiful.” The penultimate performance was transcendent. Allen Ginsberg took off all his clothes. Some people took up a collection for the actors, while others burned dollar bills. Members of the audience passed around joints and argued about the hyper-critical Eric Bentley piece (“I Reject the Living Theatre”) that appeared that morning in the Times. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1301