We suspected it, after the dark year that has just passed.
It is now confirmed: there will be no Molières this season.
Without a show to reward or promote, and the reopening moving away, the Molières association had already decided, in January, that there would be no awards ceremony apart from possible statuettes of honor.
However, there was still hope of being able to offer an evening dedicated to the theater and "labeled Molières", in the spring on France 2. This will not be the case.
Met a few days ago on the sidelines of the recording of a play, Michel Field confirmed the absence of ceremony.
"We say to ourselves that it would not make sense to make Molières in a season when there were no plays", justified the director of the Culture department of France Televisions.
The boards, already very present on the channels of the public group since the beginning of the health crisis, will be entitled to "a week of exhilaration of the theater in the spring with a bonus per evening on each of our antennas", he whispered.
It will be a “Coups de théâtre!” Week.
", Like the one that usually accompanies the Molières ceremony, but without it, with plays like" Papy fait de la Résistance "bringing together, among others, Martin Lamotte and Catherine Jacob, currently in rehearsal at the Paris theater, as well as "Seven years of reflection" with Guillaume de Tonquédec, recently captured at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens.
"They don't have the budget"
As for an evening with the Molière label in the spring, Field was rather firm.
“No, we will see with the Académie des Molières if we have a special evening at the start of the school year, but there, in the current fog, no.
"And to continue:" It goes without saying, then, that if we wanted to imagine a kind of big evening to celebrate the reopening of the places of spectacles, we would celebrate the museums, the concert halls and, obviously, the theaters, with our friends of the Molières.
"
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On the side of the Molières association, we still thought we could convince the broadcaster of the interest and the need for such an evening.
This is the content of the speech held last week by Jean-Marc Dumontet, president of Molières, to Michel Field.
Without effect.
"They do not have the budget and do not see the need either, blows this Monday a member of the office.
We continue to make proposals to them, but it is blocked.
We didn't leave to do something until the summer.
"
"Being lucid does not prevent me from being combative"
“They have always been listening partners, still estimated Dumontet, last week.
Last year, the speech was long resolved not to do them and we organized them all the same.
I knew how to convince them.
"In 2020, at the end of the first confinement, it is a ceremony without an audience and without breath that France 2 had proposed.
And, bad luck, broadcast for the first time in a while in the first part of the evening.
“Last year, against all odds, I wanted to maintain the Molières, the success of the form is obviously questionable.
This year, we cannot crown creations, that's clear, but it's up to us to imagine things, explained the president of Molières at the beginning of the year.
It's a special year again, but being lucid doesn't stop me from being combative.
I will do everything to ensure that there are Molières.
The broadcaster has apparently decided.
The party will take place, but without the Molières.