Paris (AFP)

Museums, monuments, theaters next week, before cinemas on June 22: cultural places will in turn begin a deconfinement that promises to be a headache for the live performance.

Museums and monuments will be reopened "across the country" from June 2 and the wearing of masks will be mandatory, the Prime Minister announced Thursday.

"In green areas, theaters and theaters will open from June 2," added the Prime Minister, adding that the wearing of the mask will also be mandatory. "I absolutely do not ignore the practical difficulty of reopening its equipment, as soon as the programming was disrupted, the rehearsals could not intervene," admitted the Prime Minister.

"But the performing arts do not work like that," reacted to AFP Malika Séguineau, from Prodiss, the leading employers' organization of musical shows in the private sector.

"It is not enough to press a button. We were told that it was a war situation in mid-March and all programming has been canceled. There have been no ticket sales since mid-March. Great French artists have carried over to 2021, as have international artists, "she said.

Same observation at the theater: "Many plays have been canceled, it is not enough to turn on the spotlights," added Jean-Michel Ribes, director of the Théâtre du Rond-Point on BFM-TV.

For the Prime Minister, "if some (room operators) can (reopen) while doing so, the rules for physical distance will have to be respected by a specific organization of seats, flow management in accordance with the health protocol of these spaces and wearing a mask. "

- "Not viable" -

The Prodiss had expressed its wishes in a press release published before the Prime Minister's intervention: "the reopening of theaters without distancing, the maintenance of partial unemployment at full rate until August 2021 (date based on the calendar granted intermittent workers, editor's note) and in view of the losses of companies in the sector, which cannot be absorbed before 2027, massive structural aid of 250 million euros under the safeguard plan ".

"More than 50% of companies in the sector are on the verge of extinction and the loss of turnover for companies in the sector (cinemas, festivals, producers of shows) is estimated at 1.8 billion euros", s alarm the Prodiss.

"Operators (of theaters) will have to propose and guarantee appropriate usage rules," added Edouard Philippe.

For Malika Séguineau, this means putting the legal responsibility for reopening on operators, "but they are not health experts". "It's a bit of" get by "," judges the head of Prodiss, who awaits the decrees scheduled this weekend to have "answers to all (his) questions."

- "We trépigne" -

"There is finally a light at the end of the tunnel, finally we say we will be able to reopen, redo our job, even if there are still ambiguities ... Because on June 2 in the green zone, all theaters can open under normal conditions, where the spectators will be side by side? I don't think so, "commented on RTL Jean-Marc Dumontet, director of Parisian theaters.

"So there are constraints that we do not know", he continues, even if he wants to retain "an extremely strong signal, an impulse".

He even said "moved by hearing the Prime Minister who gave us perspectives, we need it, we are stamping".

For cinemas, the reopening on June 22 will therefore be effective everywhere in France: "The cinema operators themselves wanted the reopening to be national so as to be able to organize the programming of cinemas", he said. Even if, here too, the conditions for this reopening and for respecting distancing remain to be clarified.

Discos, on the other hand, "whose very essence is to bring people together in a festive spirit, will remain closed to the public until June 21 at least," he said.

© 2020 AFP