They have a barely 100 seats, do not benefit from any subsidy and are often neighborhood theaters: small independent theaters in Paris intend to fight for their survival, despite a crisis that could become existential when the reconfinement has postponed. their activity at a standstill.
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Unlike public theaters or cinemas which can count on aid from private theater networks, since the start of the crisis these microstructures have been relying on themselves, on donations, on the indulgence of the owner of the place to reduce rent and, for the first time, on emergency state aid.
"
Ras the daisies
"
In the 18th arrondissement, historic home of many pocket theaters and café-theaters, Sylvain Mély, at the same time co-director, treasurer and manager of the Pixel Theater, had already had to lower the gauge from 38 seats to 25 at the start of the school year.
"
It was below the economic limit, we were flush with the daisies,
" he told AFP.
Like other independent venues, the Pixel is listed as a theater but treated like any business.
"
It's like a bakery and it is for this
reason
that we are entitled to assistance
" from the government, he explains.
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Since March, he has been receiving aid of up to 1,500 euros per month, a sum which changes in proportion to monthly losses.
During the first confinement, the owner lowered the rent, which is 2,250 euros per month, "
but one day or another, we will have to make up for it,
" says Sylvain Mély.
This theater enthusiast, who runs the place with two other volunteers - "
we can not afford a salary
" -, does not intend to give up.
"
We claim the Pixel as a neighborhood theater, with comedy classes that attract children from the arrondissement, we allow companies to rub shoulders with the Parisian public and we are proud of it,
" he says, affirming that the theater attracted nearly 500 spectators per month.
“
We're going to fight.
We are ready to do anything to ensure that our theater survives, otherwise we would have closed for a long time
”.
In the 11th century, at the Comédie des 3 Bornes, we don't want to be let down either, even if the anguish is there.
"
We risk our skin if we stay closed too long,
" says Florent Aumaître, one of the three administrators of this 45-seat theater.
"
We are in expectation, I do not want to be very pessimistic,
" he said.
This establishment hopes to benefit from the aid of 10,000 euros promised by the State to independent companies.
Read also: Covid-19: the cultural blues
Just like the Théâtre du Marais, in the 3rd arrondissement.
"
Our three employees are again on short-time work and we have benefited from a deferral of deadlines for our mortgage,
" said Hervé Compan, director of this 85-seat room specializing in one man shows.
"
We are annoyed because we have been working very well since the resumption
" despite all the restrictions.
In the eleventh, the Aktéon Theater, a 49-seat room for young audiences, the theater was already recovering "with
great difficulty from the first three months of closure
", according to manager Maud Ferrer.
We have only one hope: to be able to reopen on December 1 to save the furniture
Maud Ferrer, manager of the Aktéon Théâtre
“
We had no gift from our landlord and we have only one hope: to be able to reopen on December 1 to save the furniture.
Right now, I'm drawing on my running out of cash
, ”she says.
For the director of the Théâtre du Nord-Ouest, Jean-Luc Jeener, former collaborator of
Le Figaro
, the second confinement could not come at a worse time.
“
It's right when I save my theater, with donations of 220,000 euros.
It was the debt I had with the owner
"who rents the room to him at 9,000 euros per month, he says.
The 98-seat hall, which hosts more than 100 shows per year, is a "
professional testing place where there is no employee,
" he explains.
Despite the debts, a receivership and this crisis, "
the worst I have known
", he insists that his project is not at all "
economic but purely artistic
".
Will he be able to save the theater again?
“
I'm a believer, I think the Holy Spirit is going to help us
,” he replies, laughing.