It floated a bit like an air of vigil of arms on this day of Thursday, December 10 in the Parisian rooms.
Even though we feared the probable postponement of the reopening that the government was going to announce at the end of the afternoon, we worked ... In five days, the 15th, should be able to reopen the theaters.
We still hoped, we had to be ready.
Between weariness, combativeness and resilience, a short tour of theaters in Paris a few hours from the announcements of Jean Castex.
"I saw Castaner, nothing is over yet"
It is half past twelve this Thursday at the Petit Montparnasse.
Christophe Barbier and Emmanuel Dechartre reunite with their director, Jean-Claude Idée.
The same morning, they had made an appointment at Dechartre for a spinning of "One of us two", a play in which they respectively play Mandel and Blum.
They've played this show 132 times.
Interrupted several times, he had to resume on the 15th. At midday, they still believed in it a little bit.
"I saw Castaner who told me that nothing was done yet," says Barbier with optimism.
Guest of the Radio Classique morning show, he pleaded in favor of the reopening.
"The machines to spin the virus are not theaters," he argued.
"The noises are not good," said Bertrand Thamin, director of the room who came to greet him.
Also president of the National Syndicate of Private Theater (SNDTP), Bertrand Thamin admits to still being in the most total uncertainty.
"Uncertainty is at the heart of things", slips Emmanuel Dechartre, quoting the British playwright Michael Frayn.
But do they have any hope that it will resume?
"The highest form of hope is despair overcome", whispered the latter again, this time quoting Georges Bernanos.
"We have this infirmity of only being happy on stage"
"The theme of the play is resistance, people draw parallels with what they experience", emphasizes Emmanuel Dechartre./LP/Fred Dugit
The texts, the authors, so many refuges, filters to look at a gloomy reality.
“There is unease, a real disappointment, anticipates Dechartre.
A disarray that affects everyone and especially the actors because we have this disability of only being happy on stage ”.
The two men go up on the set and start playing the first scenes.
"I know your deepest nostalgia, the boulevards, the theaters, the opera…" Mandel said to Blum for a moment.
The line sounds cruelly topical… “The theme of the play is resistance, people draw parallels with what they are experiencing,” said Dechartre.
“When we played the 100th in September, it was a victory, when we also adapted to the curfew, the theater can resist anything,” says Barbier.
But if this evening we are told that we cannot reopen, it is a stab in the back ”.
"It starts to become illogical when you see the queues in the stores"
Right Bank, the Théâtre de la Madeleine momentarily comes back to life, even if there is a cellar temperature.
“We turned on the heating again yesterday and he let go, slips Julien, the manager.
The repairers came last night, but it takes several days to warm up ”.
A month and a half that the place is closed.
On stage, the decor of the play "The invitation" has not changed.
Reassembled in September for the resumption in October, it will have seen only a handful of performances.
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“We played five times and then curtain, breathes Estelle Lefébure, sitting in the large white sofa in the decor.
It's a shame, it's my first adventure on the boards and I have the impression of living it up and down, the preparation and the adrenaline of the first and a momentum cut in its tracks.
There, we must resume, I find this energy, but we do not know in fact ... "
Théâtre de la Madeleine (Paris 8th arrondissement), Thursday.
Estelle Lefébure and Philippe Lellouche are working on “The invitation” ./LP/Fred Dugit
“We all have the drone, confides Philippe Lellouche, who plays and directs.
I was on the phone with Alex Lutz who was in promotion for a film, he told me that he felt like the president of a country that does not exist ”.
And to underline how much he finds "unfair to leave the Galeries Lafayette open and not the theaters, it starts to become illogical when you see the queues in the stores".
Carton of last season with Gad Elmaleh, "The invitation" normally resumed on December 18 with a new cast, Estelle Lefébure and Patrick Chesnais.
"Reservations were distributed full blast, because people want to come, they want to escape, to laugh," says Philippe Lellouche.
And to repeat it: "There is no risk in the theater, if not to have a good time, to laugh", he continues.
He also misses it.
"You know, hearing people laugh is a hard drug."
So this reopening, do they manage to plan for it?
"We have time, it's in four years", ironically Hadrien Raccah, the author of the play.
"I think about it every day, this moment when I will be able to say thank you to them for being there, it is a vital need to see the world, to laugh together, to live," resumes Philippe Lellouche.
Not dying from Covid is not a sufficient goal in my life, give us some hope ”.
"We push the merry-go-round to its maximum capacity"
Michel Theater (Paris VIIIe), Thursday.
"A week before the premiere, saying to yourself that we may not play is very hard to live with," says Simon Astier./LP/Fred Dugit
Before Jean Castex's speech, Simon Astier, he repeats his at will at the Michel theater.
The actor adapted Fabcaro's novel “The Speech” into a single-on-stage that he was to create in September.
Creation postponed three times already.
Fourth date, which is about to be upset, December 16.
It is around 4 p.m. this Thursday.
He must spin the piece, play it in one go.
But in two hours Castex must announce if he will be able to play it.
Or not… In the room and on the set, everything is ready.
Stopped in full swing in October, the creative team resumed today
(Editor's note: this Thursday)
.
One day and then we pack up ...
“A week before the premiere, to think that we may not play is very hard to live with,” he says.
Creating a show is like a launching pad that we all take together, with the same energy, there, it's been several times that we all launched together in the slide and several times that we have to brake ourselves with the hands, with the burns that this causes ”.
Fortunately, when you open the ticket office, people buy.
“They show us their desire and it's reassuring,” he adds.
We need, they need to clear the head, the spirit ”.
But he admits, "this hot-cold side is a bit violent."
Even if it is also part of the profession.
“It breaks our knees, but as soon as it reopens, the energy comes back immediately and we forget, he believes.
Because that is also the job, to be desired then more, or not ”.
A kind of roller coaster, ups and downs.
"Yes, and you have to accept being in this game," he agrees.
But here, we push the merry-go-round to its maximum capacity ”.