I do not believe this battle lost. People are struggling. The prospect is victory. What I see is the determination of the strikers and protesters. The President has chosen to establish a balance of power rather than letting our deputies vote. I am committed to this fight well beyond my sectoral situation, even if it is perfectly justified on the part of artists and technicians.
We have been witnessing for some time the patient, systematic ransacking of everything that protects us and I do not want to raise my children in this society. Seven years of Macron is seven years of social war. Public theaters host deeply political works. Concerning our practice, there is this question which sometimes opposes us: should we impose and block all the shows? And if we block them, should they all be blocked in the same way? Perhaps we should open our theaters during the day to accommodate general assemblies – people need places that are protected to meet?
Like others, my operating theater company has sometimes chosen to donate our fees to a strike fund. Thursday we chose to play the shipwrecked according to Patrick Declerck because it is a political spectacle. If I had ridden a Feydeau or even Racine, I would have opted for the strike. And if people from my company or from the theater had chosen to block our show, I would have understood and we wouldn’t have played. I am flabbergasted that President Macron takes this line after the Covid. Two years ago, the question highlighted was: “How can we age with dignity in our societies? What place do we give to older, more fragile bodies? How do we protect them? We have an arsonist at the helm.