After two years of slump due to the Covid, the French theater celebrates its party during the Molières ceremony on Monday evening, with the hope of attracting the public to theaters again.

Organized without an audience in 2020 then completely canceled last year because of the Covid-19, the Molières will be broadcast on France 3 from 9:10 p.m., from the Folies Bergère in Paris.

The evening will be hosted by comedian Alex Vizorek.

The 400th ceremony for Molière's 400th birthday

Stars like Isabelle Huppert, Vanessa Paradis, Laetitia Casta, Pierre Arditi or Jacques Weber are among the nominees for this 33rd edition.

It was renamed "400th Molières Ceremony" to mark the 400th anniversary of the author of Le

Bourgeois Gentilhomme

.

“We want it to be joy and a party.

We were shot for two years because we couldn't do our job, now the public is coming back, we are being reborn, we are happy, said Jean-Marc Dumontet, producer at the head of several Parisian theaters and president of the Molières.

It's a moment that allows us to celebrate and show off.

»

Attendance is a long-term issue for performing arts

According to figures from the Association for the support of private theater (ASTP) cited by the newspaper

Les Echos

, the drop in theater attendance in the first quarter of 2022 is down 44% compared to 2019. The performing arts sector has moreover launched in mid-May a communication campaign entitled “Let's meet again” to encourage spectators to return to cinemas.

And beyond the economic aspect linked to the Covid, the question of attendance is a long-term issue.

According to a report by the Court of Auditors published on Monday, 20-24 year olds are less and less frequenting live performance as a whole.

"This evolution is not without raising questions about the sustainability of practices in the future", according to the report.

A pre-ceremony controversy and a tribute to Michel Bouquet

In addition to the question of attendance, the Molières were also preceded by a controversy with the collective #MeTooThéâtre, created last year to denounce sexual violence in this environment.

At the origin of this movement, the blogger Marie Coquille-Chambel accused the ceremony on Saturday of having "censored" the text that she and another activist should have read on stage.

The collective called for a protest rally Monday at 7:30 p.m. in front of the Folies Bergère.

Jean-Marc Dumontet rejects the charge of censorship, stressing that it was the Molières who had initially invited the collective to come and express themselves.

But, according to him, the proposed text did not correspond to the agreement reached between the two parties.

Under this agreement, this speech was to “avoid the evocation of particular cases”, he explained.

In addition, it was to be "centered around a proposal", namely "the establishment of a referent on sexual assault in each theater or company".

Transmitted "very late", the text of the collective "did not bring proposals", approached "a personal example" and "denounced the presence of rapists in the room, which is a totally gratuitous assertion", lamented Mr. Dumontet.

According to him, Marie Coquille-Chambel did not respond to reminders from the organization during the day on Saturday, and "preferred to express herself on her social networks in the evening".

“No one will dictate the tone or content of our speech.

It is for this reason that we have decided not to be present at the Molières, ”wrote Marie Coquille-Chambel in a blog post on Saturday, reproducing the text at the center of the dispute.

Beyond this controversy, the boss of Molières promises "a strong tribute to Michel Bouquet".

This tutelary figure of French theater and cinema, who had played no less than 800 times

The King is Dying

by Ionesco, died on April 13 at the age of 96, and was entitled to a national tribute to the Invalides.

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