INTERVIEW
In the green zone, cultural places and performance halls should gradually reopen from June 2. In Île-de-France, this reopening will not take place before June 22. But whether it is one or the other, for Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, writer, but above all director of the Rive Gauche theater in Paris, it is "difficult" to play, even "almost impossible".
"We are going to do an abstinence from live performance until the start of the new school year"
"A theater, open or closed, is expensive every day. It costs the wages of artists and craftsmen on stage, and if suddenly inside the room you can only put one in three spectators armchairs, it's almost impossible to reopen, "warns Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt on Europe 1.
"We, directors of theaters or concert halls, are facing a real problem," he says. "Are we really going to reopen, or wait until the virus subsides and the public can come in the normal way? Because economically, it is not playable."
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The Rive Gauche theater should therefore not reopen to the public on June 22, especially since, as the writer reminds us, "the theatrical season ends at the end of June, and very few theaters remain open in summer in Paris because generally all artists go to festivals ". As in addition this year, "the festivals are suppressed", underlines Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, whose theater had several plays which were going to be created in Avignon, "I have the impression that we are going to make a cure of abstinence from live show until the start of the school year. ”
"The actors have plexiglass visors"
The rehearsals nevertheless resumed at the Rive Gauche theater, in particular those of the play The Visitor of the writer, in a somewhat special atmosphere. "The actors have plexiglass visors to avoid saliva splashes when they speak, and we also discover at the end of the rehearsal that finally, there are the postilions, even if we don't see them!", he has fun.
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"It's a funny atmosphere. When we reopened the theater, it was a bit like opening the tomb of Tutankhamun, with a theater that had slept for three months. We were happy to reopen it and the actors were crazy of happiness to be able to find their art. " The actors play with visors, but also with distance measurements. Kissing scenes, for example, are spoken but not played. A "fairly surreal" result, concludes Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, but which is also synonymous with "back to the light. Everyone is very happy."