Olivier Py on the stage of the Graslin theater in Nantes, in 2019. LOIC VENANCE/AFP
INVESTIGATION – The former director of the Avignon Festival passed, in the home straight, in front of the two finalists. By the sole will of Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris. Story of six months of behind-the-scenes negotiations.
For forty-eight hours, Olivier Py, renowned playwright and director, has been on the airwaves to explain his ambitions for the Théâtre du Châtelet. The twenty people who were to decide collectively on the appointment of the boss of the Châtelet discover it at the same time as the listeners. “I didn’t know Py’s program, I learned the main lines of it by listening to the radiolaments the former deputy LR Brigitte Kuster. At a minimum, there should have been more transparency for all those who, like me, sit on the board of directors of the Châtelet.
A lack of transparency? The word is weak. The first to have thrown a stone into the pond is the bubbling Alice Coffin, elected EELV, who worked five months on the candidacies. “It’s a scandal and the exact illustration of how inter-self works within cultural institutions”she thunders, putting forward a decision “sexist and arbitrary”.
Read alsoChâtelet: the underside of the fall of an “iron lady”
Beyond the pass of arms on parity, above all…
This article is for subscribers only. You have 89% left to discover.
Want to read more?
Unlock all items immediately. Without engagement.
Already subscribed? Login