Peter Brook was originally set to direct The Balcony in 1958 at the Théâtre Antoine in Paris, until he was forced to postpone when Simone Berriau (Théâtre Antoine’s artistic director) was threatened by the Parisian police.

For while she was with the police, a hand beckoned her into an inner room and she was told, off the record, that if she proceeded with this play, a riot would be organized (by the police, naturally!) and the theatre would be closed. This incidentally was a play that had run in London without scandal, but as it showed a priest and a general in a brothel it was more than the French could take.  Brook, Peter. 1987. The Shifting Point: Forty Years of Theatrical Exploration, 1946-1987. London: Methuen. p. 35

Two years later,Brook opened the play on May 18th, 1960 at the Théâtre du Gymnase in Paris. The production featured Marie Bell as Irma and Roger Blin (the director of the first production of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot) as the Envoy.  Brook designed the sets himself, with a revolving stage for the first few scenes in the brothel. He cut the scene in the café with the revolutionaries as well as most of the profanity on account the actresses refused to speak them.

Of course Genet objected.