The curfew, yet another hard blow for theaters already hard hit by the crisis

TESTIMONY

After confinement and reduced gauges, here is the curfew in several large cities of France, which is hitting the theater scene head-on.

"It's very hard," says Eric Gautret, producer of shows and director of a Lyon troupe, at the microphone of Europe 1. For seven months, small structures and troops, especially in regions, have suffered particularly.

The curfew is a new blow, some of which will not recover, if nothing is done, he assures.

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Revenue divided by seven

A turnover divided by seven, cascading cancellations of dates, a drop in attendance of 60% since Lyon went into the maximum alert zone ... The curfew is ultimately only the coup de grace , yet another very hard blow for Eric Gautret.

"There, what we have just announced is that the 2020-2021 season will be very disturbed or even completely non-existent. We are in the process of undermining a sector to which we will be asking for about 20 months to work without turnover or almost ", laments the producer.

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Rapid state aid

He therefore urgently asks the government "to mobilize in a practical way, that aid will come down. Otherwise, we are going to kill places, people who have developed everything on their own funds, who have never had aid and who are find themselves very penalized even though there has not been a theater in France where there is a cluster! ", recalls Eric Gaudret.

He hopes for rapid aid from the state because if this situation continues, he will no longer be able to pay his actors and risk bankruptcy.