a performance, the proceeds of which completely or partially (in the case of a semibenefit) went for the benefit of one or several actors, the beneficiaries (after deductions for the expenses of the performance).

Benefit performances arose in France in 1735. They came into practice in Russia in 1783 (before 1809 they were also given for playwrights and composers). Benefit performances were abolished in the USSR by a resolution of the Fifth Ail-Union Congress of the Trade Union of Art Workers (1925).