Décentralisation théâtrale, La. State-sponsored programme launched in 1947 to remedy the lack of theatrical provision in the provinces. It had long been recognized that the capital's cultural hegemony, encapsulated in the catch-phrase ‘Paris et le désert’, effectively meant that the majority of French people were theatrically disenfranchized. Whereas earlier attempts to remedy this situation—e.g. Gémier's Théâtre National Ambulant (1911-12)—had been abortive, the post-war programme under the direction of Jeanne Laurent created seven Centres Dramatiques Nationaux: Le Grenier de Toulouse, the Centres Dramatiques de l'Est (Strasbourg), de l'Ouest (Rennes), du Sud-Est (Aix-en Provence), and du Nord (Tourcoing), La Comédie de Saint-Étienne, and Le Théâtre de la Cité (Villeurbanne). A second tier was created by the provision of subsidies for a number of existing semi-permanent provincial companies, some of which were designated Troupes Permanentes.
Further impetus derived from a parallel programme launched in 1959 to create provincial Maisons de la Culture (often endowed with excellent up-to-date theatre facilities). Of the numerous festivals which have also sprung up since the war, the most flourishing are those of
— David Whitton
