The title is that of a novel by John le Carré — apparently his last —
reviewed this morning in the online New York Times by Joseph Finder:
" The great Graham Greene didn’t quite take his own
spy novels seriously, labeling them 'entertainments,'
but le Carré revamped the genre to fit his considerable
ambitions. 'Out of the secret world I once knew,' he wrote,
'I have tried to make a theater for the larger worlds we inhabit.' "
The title suggests an image related to another novel …
Under the Volcano , by Malcolm Lowry (1947) —
The PLATA on the sign at right means "silver." The car in the foreground
is turning left onto Jardín Juárez, a street named for the plaza it adjoins
in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
As for "to make a theater" . . .
My own modest efforts along those lines include a Log24 post
from le Carré's date of death:
