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France's Molière theatre awards get prime time TV spot to counter Covid-19 impact

By Ollia Horton with RFI
France  Association Les Molires
MAY 20, 2020 LISTEN
© Association Les Molières

The award ceremony for the 32nd annual Molières awards, the French theatre equivalent of the cinema industry's 'Cesar', will be presented for the first time on prime time television in June.

The news is a welcome boost for the cultural industry, greatly affected by the restrictive lockdown measures in place to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Jean-Marc Dumontet, president of Les Molières association and owner of several Parisian theatres revived the competition some years ago after a three year break (2011-2013) and has faced his fair share of challenges.

The 2019 awards ceremony was briefly interrupted by some 'gilets jaunes' yellow vest protesters angry over budget cuts to the sector, shouting slogans at Culture Minister Franck Riester.

Dumontet is now dealing with trying to keeping theatre alive in the face of the coronavirus epidemic.

"This 32nd Molières ceremony is here to remind us that continuity is important after such a big break," he said.

"It's there to help us project towards life 'post-covid' even if we are living in complete uncertainty. It's there to celebrate theatre and live performance which represent such an important part of our society," he explained.

He told AFP that television channels have previously been reluctant to broadcast theatre awards seeing them as 'not mainstream' enough.

However, that is about to change as public channel France 2 prepares to host the gala evening from 9pm on 23 June from the Chatelet theatre in central Paris.

Although details of the evening are still being worked out, two elements are sure. There won't be an audience, due to Covid-19 restrictions, and the host is to be comedian and actor Bruno Solo.

In all there are 19 categories in the Les Molières, including theatre for young audiences, humour, musicals, best actor and actress and plays by a living francophone author.

Award categories
The Molières awards are named after 17th century French playwright, actor and poet, born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language, whose plays have been translated into many languages.

In the public theatre category, La Mouche (The Fly) based on a work by George Langelaan directed by Christian Hecq and Valérie Lesort, at the Bouffes du Nord got nominations in six categories including best public theatre play, and best actor and actress.

Hecq, who happens to be one of President Emmanuel Macron's favourite actors, stars in a comic adaptation of the famous science-fiction story where a scientist fuses with a fly during teleportation.

RFI met with Christian after a show in January this year and witnessed first hand how much the French public adore theatre.

In the category for best actress in the public theatre domain, Isabelle Adjani, who plays the lead role in Opening Night, by John Cassavetes, is up against Isabelle Carré in Détails de Lars Norén.

The other favourites of this year's crop include Electre des bas-fonds by Simon Abkarian at the Theatre du Soleil (five nominations), followed by La Puce à L'Oreille by Georges Feydeau at the Comédie-Française (four nominations) and Contes et Legendes by Joël Pommerat at the Amandiers de Nanterre (three nominations).

In the private theatre category, it's a close call between Une histoire d'amour by Alexis Michalik (four nominations), Rouge by John Logan with Niels Arestrup (five nominations including best actor) and Marie des Poules - gouvernante chez George Sand, by Gérard Savoisien (four nominations including best actress).

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